As our car entered the border of California and Arizona, my husband and I went off to fill in some gas and we saw a huge, full golden moon at the edge of heaven.

Then my husband’s cell phone rang and it was our son.  After they talked for a while, my son asked his father to turn on his phone speaker, for he wanted me to join their conversation.

“Mama, we just came back from Abby’s parent’s house.  We had dinner with them tonight…. ”

After filling in the gas, my husband took his turn to drive while listening to the usually-never-ending- conversation between his wife and his son.  This time we focused on the theme of family relationships and I could feel his deep love toward each and every one for his own family and his wife's family.  I could even "see" the tears in his eyes.

My son is indeed an affectionate person!

“Hey!” I intended to divert the subject, “Son, do you know it is full moon tonight?  The moon is so huge tonight!”

“Oh, yeah? Let me go to the yard and see…..”

Then there went my son holding his cell phone in his yard and I holding my cell phone in our driving car…… and my heart went back to February 2000 when our son was about to graduate from his high school in 3 months.

Our daughter was then already married and lived in another state, my husband had already quit his first church ministry and was temporarily unemployed.  One night after dinner, my son finished cleaning his three dog’s droppings in the sideyard and we all of a sudden decided to drive at night to Disney Land to have some crazy fun…..

I remember my son saying that this might have been the craziest thing our family had ever done.

I remember my husband and my son taking turns driving all night and they did not let me drive at all.

“We are chauvinistic, so we don’t allow ladies to drive,” my son smiled at me, “ladies can only be permitted to watch the moon and enjoy herself.” 

I also remember that we stopped at one rest area to take a short nap.  When it was dawn, my son woke up and greeted good morning to me and to his father,  he then reached from his backseat to kiss on my forehead.

When being asked to kiss his dad as well, my son acted up and "screamed" that he and his dad were not gay.....

Oh, as the same full moon brightly and gracefully followed all our way in the same desert last night, I suddenly realized thirteen years has easily flied by.

Now, my husband and I were heading for New Mexico to visit our daughter and her family, then we are to visit our son and his family in Colorado.

Since our son worried about our driving safety and he so couldn’t wait to see us that he had called us several times….

“Mama, I think this is pretty amazing that, though you and I are 1000 miles apart, we are now watching the exactly same moon!”

Ha!  Doesn't this sound like a verse from a famous poet Su Dong-Po who lived a thousand years ago in the Song Dynasty?