Moon joy 🌕🌈🤸‍♀️

Whimsy, hopecore, and enchantment brought to us by four wild-eyed dreamers/nerds 🤓🤩

Confession: I’ve never been “into” outer space. Never been fascinated by the cosmos, or curious about what’s out there.

(Though there are a handful of people I’d love to send on a one-way ticket!)

I hadn’t even been paying attention to the Artemis II mission (not sure what that says about my social feeds, lol) until Jess and Liz wrote about how moved they were by it.

Now it had my attention.

(and became my entire personality)

I spent the better part of last night catching up on the last nine days, meeting Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy — four of the most incredible (emotional support) humans (and new BFFs to all).

While others are fascinated by moon and space facts, I’m fascinated by the moments that feel like whimsy, delight, play, and hopecore.

I watched/listened/swooned about the things they had no reason to do, but did anyway because it was beautiful and meaningful.

Like how they named their spacecraft Integrity (!!!)

And a crater after commander Reid Wiseman’s wife Carroll, a NICU nurse, who died of cancer in 2020 — “It is a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call that Carroll.” Crater Carroll!!!

Hid Easter eggs (dehydrated scrambled eggs 😂) around their spacecraft, woke up to Pink Pony Club 💖, and brought earthly delights like Nutella (and maple syrup! 🍁🇨🇦).

Were absolutely poetic in their descriptions about earth, the moon, and humanity.

Took a selfie wearing the same solar eclipse glasses we got as elementary school kids (astronauts, they’re just like us!).

Asked the astronauts on the ISS what they were eating just so they could eat the same thing that day. 🥹

Gave heart hands 🫶🏼 and showed off their friendship bracelet (because #girldad). Hugged, cried, and fistbumped.

Four wild-eyed dreamers and nerds reminded us that even in something as technical, precise, and high-stakes as space travel, you can still made room for delight.

For care. For each other. For human connection.

They made room for art, wonder, and awe. Reminded us of the comfort of competence and courage.

Seeing how lit up people got about Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, how moved they were by imagery, words, and music, was moon joy. It reminded us what it feels like to feel good!!

While I may never participate in a discussion about astronomy with the same intensity I would for, say, a show on Bravo, what I’ve come to appreciate about space travel is how it gives us perspective about what’s worth saving and loving and protecting and paying attention to.

Which feels rare. These last nine days made many of us stop (scrolling). Take in something that wasn’t being optimized for efficiency. That wasn’t being rushed.

We allowed ourselves to be excited with anticipation. Surprised. To take it in.

It’s rare I give that to myself. I’m more likely to consume moments like these in passing — give it a quick double tap and move on to the next thing before it’s even had a chance to land in my brain, much less my body. 🫠

But these were moments of whoa. The kind of awe that you can’t just skim — because you don’t want to. You want to sit with it. Let it wash over you. FEEL IT. Talk about it. Geek out over it.

These precious moments of whoa, whimsy, hope, and awe are worth actively scanning for. It’s so good for us that science says the relief, smallness, and oneness we experience is akin to a biological reset button.

I think we all felt that, collectively, watching this mission unfold. For those few moments each day that we were let into their orbit, it wasn’t just about us, our problems, our to-do lists, our own little worlds.

It was about something bigger and beautiful and human. We were watching people do something extraordinary and still make room for care, for meaning, and each other.

That feeling of awe, of perspective, of being pulled out of yourself and into something larger isn’t just nice, but very necessary.

It’s the kind of feeling I want to make more space for… and I’m dreaming up something to help us do just that 🤸‍♀️

Big, squeezy astronaut hugs to you all 🫶🏼