The Platform and the Blood Moon

This year we built our first platform — a small, beautiful structure that became a tea house by day and something stranger by night. Ida led a Japanese tea ceremony on the platform, and above it we hung a disco ball that caught projected light and sent it shimmering out across the whole of Borderland. Some of our members had brought a tap system to serve cold carbonated tea — iced sencha and homemade Club Mate — which turned out to be exactly right for what was a hot summer. We also served a lot of chaga. We had moved from the water's edge to the top of a hill, losing the ocean view but gaining a panorama over the entire burn. The platform was visible from far away — a silhouette against the sky, the little red tent beside it.

That year also brought a lunar eclipse. We knew it was coming, and we quietly turned the platform into an observatory. As the sun set and the blood moon rose — completely red, covered by the shadow of the Earth — people gathered to watch. When the moon finally broke free and began to shimmer, flooding the platform with light, it felt like the moon and the disco ball were answering each other.