The Sun and The Moon Passed Each Other

The Sun and the Moon passed each other as they did every day when day turned to night. “Goodnight Sun.” the Moon would say as she rose above the earth. “Protect our people well, Moon.” the Sun would say as he left the sky to sleep. Moon would admire Sun’s rays and Sun would admire Moon’s gentle light, it was in this way that the two fell in love. Moon thought about the situation as she watched her people from the night sky. When she met Sun as they were trading places again the next day, she called out to him. “Oh Sun, you shine so handsomely and I love you very much.” The Sun replied “I love you too Moon, I always have. When can we be together?” Moon thought about this for a long moment and then spoke softly “People don’t like the darkness of the night. It scares the children and the people can’t see through the darkness.

We could stay together and never let the darkness of night fall on our people.” The Sun agreed to this and said “come shine with me, Moon!” The Moon and Sun shined all day long as they watched their people. When the time for darkness came, Sun did not set. Although they were happy together, things did not work out as they planned. Many children cried because they didn’t want to sleep while it was still daytime and the adults couldn’t sleep either due to it being too bright from Sun and Moon’s light shining. “Moon.” said Sun, very late into what should have been the night time. “The people are weary and cannot sleep due to my light.” “Yes I see” agreed Moon, “let us both set so that we may be together and the people may sleep.” Sun and Moon happily dipped way, way down below Earth. This left earth very dark with only tiny stars to make light for the people during night time. This confused the people. They didn’t know what time it was anymore and many people slept into well what should have been daytime. This went on for many months, leaving the people confused. They missed Sun and how he lit up their days, helping plants grow and giving life to them and the animals.

They missed Moon and how she gave them just enough of a soft glow to make them feel protected at night and how she kept watch over the night sky. They knew they wouldn’t be able to survive without them. Pretty soon many people wrote letters and asked Wind to deliver them to Sun and Moon. Most of the letters stated that they missed the two lovers and they needed night and day to remain healthy and strong. After getting many of these letters, Sun and Moon knew the statements were true. Sun looked over sadly at Moon. “I love being with you moon, I love having your soft and loving glow all to myself and I love you so much that my heart aches to tell you that we need to leave this place and go back to our people. I miss giving people daylight, they need me.” Moon sighed sadly, “yes sun, the people need night as well. I miss providing them light in the darkness and protecting them while they sleep. I love you but we must return to give night and day to our people.” The two agreed that the only times they could see each other was the few moments between night and day and day and night.

This time however, it was more painful. They both knew the joy of being together and it made only a few quick glances of each other even harder to stand. Sun would cry, which caused rain showers and floods. Moon did not feel whole without the sun, so she only showed up as a sliver in the sky. After a few months of this, Earth spoke to them and explained that things needed to change for the sake of their people. “I will rotate and the people will have no idea they are spinning. Moon, you will stay to one side of me while Sun, you will stay on the other. When the people are on one side of me are having daylight, the others will have night. You two will never have to pass each other again. You will not be reminded of what you can never have.” Sun and moon agreed that this would be best so they followed Earth’s instructions and they both remained on one side of Earth.

The people would say that when Sun shined his brightest he was thinking of Moon. When Moon was her fullest, she was thinking of Sun. This was true. So, Sun and Moon lived separate lives while still in love with one another. They remained married to each other by their dedication to their people. They never coexisted again, leaving one side of the Earth lit with light and the other side with darkness.