The Moon in the Glass of Water

Every evening Nina kept a glass of water on her bedside table.

Not because she was always thirsty. She liked knowing it was there, close and quiet, with its tiny bubbles clinging to the glass.

One night the window was open and the sea could just be heard. The Moon entered the room with a clear light and settled right inside the glass.

Nina sat up in bed.

“How did you get in there?” she whispered.

The Moon in the sky stayed where she was. The one in the glass trembled a little.

Nina grabbed the glass too quickly. The Moon broke into a hundred silver pieces.

“Oh no!”

She stayed still. The water calmed down. Slowly, the Moon became round again.

Nina understood that she had to move gently.

She placed the glass on the bedside table and looked without touching it. She saw that the Moon changed when she breathed too strongly, when the wind moved the curtain, when the cat passed near the bed.

It was always the same Moon, but every little thing transformed her.

Her mother came in quietly.

“Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I am watching the Moon in the water.”

Her mother smiled. “Then watch her well.”

They sat together. For three breaths they said nothing.

Nina saw a bubble climb along the glass. She saw a line of light on the bedside table. She saw her hand reflected beside the Moon.

“Was all this here before?”

“Yes,” said her mother. “But now you are here with attention.”

That night Nina drank a sip of water without hurrying. The Moon swayed and then became calm again.

From then on, when something seemed boring, Nina tried to look at it as she had looked at the glass: a button, a pencil, a leaf, the spoon in a cup.

She discovered that the world was not always new.

Very often, she was the one learning to look at it anew.