A full moon –  it’s the perfect time to throw a party, to celebrate, to be festive, loony if you like, and to have some active fun.

Let me explain. I am active and constantly coach, prod, teach, encourage and nag others, including you, dear readers, to move, to get outdoors as much as possible, to include exercise in each day and to play.

I sincerely believe purposeful, deliberate, structured training is great, but that it must be accompanied by hours of moving through life, in a variety of activities, with a sense of humor and within a community of friends.

Like many of you, I become bogged down in the busy-ness, the hustle and bustle of work, responsibilities, obligations, tasks and worries of daily life. I neglect to take my own advice, and the recommendations of so many others much wiser than me, to play, to have fun.

A few weeks back I was invited to join some awesome women on a full moon snowshoe to the summit of a wooded mountain in central Vermont. I was about to decline when I said to myself, “Hey, this is what you are always recommending to others — just do it.”

When the time arrived to join my friends, I had many excuses prepared as there were deadlines and unfinished tasks piling up around me.

I snowshoed. It took time to get where we were going, through woods on trails that were sometimes packed and sometimes deep and new, sometimes gentle but usually steep, sometimes with headlamps, sometimes simply under the starlit sky, sometimes in full chatter and sometimes silent, sometimes focused and breathing hard, sometimes in awe. But always in companionship.

And then it happened. Over the crest of the hill, past the distant mountain range, there it was, the moon beginning its ascent. It was a celebration of life in Vermont, of friendship, of the blessing of an active lifestyle. It was also a workout and we were happy to return to a warm house to eat and drink and share.

So why don’t we do this more often? Those five or so hours with friends have sustained me with pleasant memories during the weeks since. Do we need an excuse to get outdoors, to do something fun or maybe even a little silly, a bit — lunatic?

Here’s the excuse, a full moon. The very next full moon is known as the Full Pink Moon, supposedly dubbed that because of the early flowering pink phlox. It’s also called the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and, on the coast, the Full Fish Moon because of the shad headed upstream to spawn. There’s more. In the early morning, for about five minutes, there will be a total lunar eclipse.

Here are a few lunar facts for you. The moon is actually a satellite, billions of years old, and rather than a face in the moon, what we see are craters. The solar eclipse happens during a new moon, but a lunar eclipse comes about at the time of a full moon, and thus April 4. The moon affects ocean tides and the length of days.

Moving beyond the scientific, the moon figures prominently in music, literature, mythology, nursery rhymes, folk tales and art. There’s the man in the moon, a man on the moon, the attempt to reach the moon, over the moon and to the moon and back.

In January, we had a Full Wolf Moon and in February, a Full Snow Moon. (no kidding). The March Full Worm Moon sounds less enticing, but it worked.

May 3 brings us a Full Flower Moon, June 2 a Full Strawberry Moon and July offers a bonus of two in one month: the Full Beach Moon on July 1 and the Blue Moon on July 31 (the 2nd of two full in one month is a Blue Moon).

Aug. 29 provides the Full Sturgeon Moon, Sept. 27 the Full Harvest Moon, Oct. 27 the Full Hunter’s Moon, and Nov. 25 the Full Beaver Moon.

The year ends coincidentally with the Full Moon Before Yule, or the Full Cold Moon, falling on Dec. 25.

Because the calendar is based upon the moon, perhaps you will join me in taking pen in hand and noting the remaining full moon dates of 2015. Then, go ahead and put yourself out there.

Plan now, and more importantly invite others to join you, thus stating your intention, to actively celebrate each full moon. There are full moon walks, hikes, runs, skis, snowshoes, paddles, cruises, events, outings and frolics in the moonlight just waiting to be devised and enjoyed.