Hey there, today's episode is hosted by the poet Dianelli Antigua.

Enjoy, and I'll be back on June 22nd.

I'm Dianelli Antigua, and this is The Slowdown.

Thank you. And this is the slowdown. The moon is about 238,8,85 miles away from Earth, which is roughly 30 Earths lined up end to end.

But moonlight only takes about 1.3 seconds to reach us.

The distance feels impossible, and yet the light arrives almost instantly.

It makes me think about how love can work like that too,

how it can stretch across time and space and still arrive right when we need it.

Even though I'm nearing my 40s, my mother still texts me good night every night. She always says,

They amo, hasta la Luna and de waltta. I love you to the moon and back. But when I was in my early

20s, I didn't appreciate the nightly texts. I wanted to feel independent. I didn't want to answer

to anyone. I'd get annoyed and not respond right away, which would only spark a series of worried

messages, followed by my own frustration. Almost 20 years later, there are nights when she forgets to text me,

and now it's me who starts to panic. I run through the worst-case scenarios. Maybe her blood

pressure is too low. Maybe she slipped and fell. That's when I start sending the worried texts.

When she finally responds, it's always simple.

I'm okay, Corazon, she'll say.

She fell asleep on the couch watching a telenovela, and my worry melts away.

I realize we've switched places.

How the care I once resisted is now the care I offer.

How love keeps moving between us, even as it changes shape.

There's something about the phrase to the moon and back that I don't think

...