Fish Touch the Moon’s Reflection Every Night 🌕🐠: How Moon Phases Influence Fish Behavior.

“You can’t touch the moon, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.” — Haruki Murakami

So there I was, watching an episode of The Wheel of Time on Amazon the other day when one of the characters said something that really stuck with me—fish touch the moon’s reflection every night 🌕🐠

I sat there thinking, “Wow, that’s kinda deep. I’ve never looked at it that way before.”

So I jotted it down to revisit later.

And the more I thought about it, the more ideas it sparked—eventually leading to this post.

It might sound like some poetic nonsense, but if you really think about it, you realize that the fish swimming in the water nonchalantly, see the moon’s reflection in the water, and reach out to touch it.

And for them, it’s real.

They don’t know the real moon is far up in the sky.

To the fish, the reflection is the moon.

As the Sufi poet Rumi put it, “When water is still, it reflects the moon.” It’s a simple yet powerful reminder of how perspective shapes our reality.

In a way, we all have our own “reflections of the moon” moments.

And since our perception of life is shaped by our experiences, beliefs, and emotions, we can sometimes mistake these reflections for reality itself.

As the late philosopher Alan Watts would say, we see the world through the lens of our fears, desires, and assumptions—often forgetting that there’s more beyond what we perceive.

But the fish doesn’t waste time questioning the reflection. It doesn’t debate whether it’s real or just an illusion. It simply interacts with what it knows, finding beauty in what it can touch. “Reality is merely an illusion,” says Einstein, “albeit a very persistent one.”

Photo by Ivy Son:

Maybe we, too, can learn from the fish.

For instance, instead of obsessing over what’s “real” or worrying about what we can’t reach, we can embrace the beauty of the moment that’s in front of us.

We can ask the big questions beyond what we already know.

Pondering the bigger truths and possibilities we don’t fully yet understand.

Seeing things from a new perspective can help us make sense of the world in ways we never imagined.

So next time you’re feeling worried or doubtful, think about the fish—swimming through the water, completely unaware that it’s even there.

We’re the same way sometimes.

We can easily get so caught up in our experiences, beliefs, and emotions that we can mistake them for reality. As the poet William Blake once said, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

Fish Touch the Moon’s Reflection Every Night 🌕🐠

Anyway, thanks for reading!

I know it’s a bit abstract, but I just wanted to put it out there. Hopefully, it gave you something to think about or at least found it interesting.