03:57

May 16.
Sun in Taurus. New moon.
Wake-up feel: 7.

03:57. A plane crossed overhead. Not a fighter this time — a transport. Boeing
747, heavy, heading east. I opened Flightradar24. Dover to Rzeszów —
southeastern Poland, major NATO logistics hub, close to the Ukrainian
border. Cargo. I lay there. A country which has been broken open.
Where people decide to build anyway. Then the birds started.

Up. Exercises. Out.

The road between the Bodden and the rapeseed fields. Almost cloudless —
a different sky than the last four days. Breeze from the west, cool off
the water. The birds were singing but not hyperactive this morning.
Balanced. Something had settled.

At the threshold to the winding road, a crow flew directly overhead.
Silent. One to two meters above. It did not call. It passed.

Along the reed beds, what had been gold for weeks is giving way. New
green shoots are pushing through the dried stalks — faster every day.
The old still standing while the new climbs through it.

Closer to the turnaround point, the big black bird was circling again.
Still cannot identify it. And then the cuckoo — perched in the tree
where I saw the big black bird a few weeks ago — began its call. The moment
I turned back, it grew louder.

The elster came out of nowhere. Perched beside the path. Looked at me
once, then away.

Today is the new moon. The moon goes dark — not absent, returning.

The lunar cycle that opened March 26, the first morning I walked from
this place, closes and restarts here. Fifty-one mornings. The body has
been keeping its own record. I do not need to read it to know something
has changed — the feet know the road, the lungs know the pace, the 4:00
wake does not feel like deprivation anymore.

On a coast like this, the moon was not decoration. The people who
fished the Bodden and cut these reeds in winter did not consult a
calendar — the moon was the calendar. When it went dark, the body
recognized it before the mind could name it. The fish moved
differently. The tide had a different weight. They planted. They
waited. They trusted the dark was working.

Fruit day, the calendar says. Then, at 19:00, the moon enters Taurus.
New moon at 22 degrees.

The seed goes into dark soil before anything is visible.

Day 51 — Phase 8 — Warmth — Kidney — Agate — Durga
Gut Nisdorf, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Baltic Coast
© 2025–2026 Michel Garand | A Pilgrim's Fitness Plan | CC BY-SA 4.0
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