The news and the almanac are calling tonight’s
full moon the Snow Moon,
but Robin Wall Kimmerer tells us
many Indigenous people knew
this moon as the Hunger Moon,
arriving so deep in winter that both
stored provisions and game grew scarce.
Communities braced against the cold,
dreaming together of warmer, more abundant days ahead.

And here she is again, the Hunger Moon,
arriving this year on Beatitudes Sunday,
when the lectionary gives us Jesus
blessing the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted,
those who mourn and those who hunger for righteousness,
longing for us to live in right-relationship
with each other and the earth.

Perhaps tonight the Hunger Moon
holds vigil with those of us hungering–
for food where it is scarce,
mercy where there is cruelty,
peace where there is conflict,
protection where there is persecution,
comfort for those who mourn,
restoration where there is brokenness–
and she echos blessings for all of this hunger to be filled.