In Sing Down The Moon, Bright Moon says that "the day the waters came was a wonderful day".

In Chapter One, Bright Moon remembers the year when spring came early. With the melting of the snow, the waters had flowed freely, meeting at the north of the canyon and flowing south, past Spider Rock and Lost Sheep Mountain. Eventually, the melted water had flowed like a river past Bright Moon's village. Bright Moon remembers hearing the first sounds of the approaching spring waters while she laid awake in bed the night before.

She remembers how wonderful it was to have an early spring because it meant that the landscape would no longer look so bare and the waters would aid the growth of fruit and greenwood trees on her family's land. Also, the coming of an early spring meant that she would be able to redeem herself in her mother's eyes sooner. The previous spring, Bright Moon had left her mother's sheep to fend for themselves on the mesa during a snowstorm. As the new spring approached, Bright Moon found herself anxious to prove that she could be a responsible sheep-herder.