And so the year ends. The ground will go fallow, the leaves will fall, the things that sleep when it gets cold* will take to their hidey-holes – the part of the world that circles around our calendar will take its rest.
If the spring and summer are times for loud building, work and singing, chirp and moving, then the winter is for quiet building - docking one’s proverbial ship for cleaning and repairs. Our bodies have to go inside, and our consciousness turns inward, too. It’s a time for assessing our internal stores and damages and doing what we can to make ourselves “sea-worthy”.
Hopefully when spring comes we will emerge to a bright and brave new world. One where our national leaders have begun to actually care about their jobs and the citizens who depend on them; one where our soldiers will be coming home to have their bodies and minds healed by a loving and grateful government. We will awake from our hibernation with renewed concern for our neighbors and our environment – and ourselves, and we will show our joy by sharing this good feeling with everyone who didn’t get a winter’s rest. We will love our enemies until they can’t hurt us anymore, we will take what we have that is surplus and give it without hesitation. We will care for the children and elderly and animals of other families, we will take more notice of the world around us in order to enrich our souls more deeply and have a better understanding of others.
All these things are so easy. Things we should all be doing already, every minute of the day, right? And all we need is a winter’s rest to think and find these things within ourselves to change the world. I don’t think the Goddess gives us money or possessions of any kind. I’m not sure that She gives us any more strength or beauty or grace than we’re born with or can find on our own. But the one thing that She – or He, or the Universe - DOES give us is CHANCES. A new one every day, every second. Opportunity abounds in this Universe. Change and chances are the one thing that we all believe in, no matter what we call God.
I wish you all good and productive winter’s rest. Let your body slow down, let your soul quicken. May your chances all find you. It’s up to us to make the world a better place. These men who are “running” it will run it into the ground.
It’s up to us.
Much love,
-Sam

*like GIRLS