I mention this as the moon just rose up enough to expose that bottom crescent and there is enough mist in the air to blurr it a bit. We will wait for it to get a bit higher but at 1am, it had better hurry up as my eyes are starting to go. Not to get too maudlin about things, thinking about my friend and all, but I suppose that things like the moon rising lends a certain stability to things - feast or famine, war or peace, like Hemingway's sun, the moon always rises if we see it or not and unlike the sun it rises a different way with a different look for a month and then starts it over again in case you missed it the first time.
Point is that there are things that are constants although nuanced like our moon and they not only measure out time but remind us that tomorrow will be different than today and that is the natural order of it.
Looking past the moon, we wonder what else is out there seen and unseen, just past our nearsighted abilities, that would or could make our rough patches a little less ...well...rough.