Oh, to be rid of 2021. It started January 6 with crazies storming our capitol building trying to topple our democratic government. It ended with a catastrophic fire ten miles from where I sit and type this, destroying 1100 homes. Last night a blanket of more than a foot of snow covered everywhere around me, and I am going to go out and rejoice that finally a new year with new beginnings awaits in this clean white world that has fallen from the sky.
This year I:
--learned to do ceramics, a saving grace in a lockdown year
--wrote this in my journal: "It would seem we have been admitted to the spheres of dreams and magic." -Goethe.
--remembered many dreams, and revisited them to learn patterns and teachings from deep in my own subconscious and perhaps from elsewhere as well. Payed a dream shamanic counselor to help me refine the teachings, invaluable.
--welcomed my second adorable grandchild, and got to visit them both on her first birthday. We went to a petting zoo, picked pumpkins, walked to the playground to swing and play, hiked a beautiful Fall New Jersey trail, read books and cuddled on the couch, sang some songs, and I felt it was the best weekend of my life.
--continued my gardening with plant teachers and allies: lots of sage, some rosemary and echinacea, always roses and peonies and hellebore and daffodils. A few hot peppers, not enough to justify the watering I gave them. A first crop of apricots, most of which I got before the squirrels did. A overabundance of apples, plenty for us and all the critters. Only several raspberries (not enough water.) Catnip everywhere. Compost bags from the grocery store which created a food source for rodents, and then visits by owls and hawks. The wheel turned and created food. The teachings of the plants has always been women's work, and time in my garden helped to unbind me from the political realities of this difficult year. Green things rooting, rising, wilting, and falling teaching me that we will continue to expand and contract in order to grow. Joy arriving in the explosion of color in flowers.
--walked my dog on quiet paths, did some yoga, stopped anti-depressants, got a cataract fixed, ate mostly keto then lots of chocolate, started a new job and got a new (to me) car, tried to look forward hopefully instead of backward with despair, read a lot. Spent lots of time alone: "I and me are always too deeply in conversation, how could I endure it if there were not a friend?" -Nietzsche.
Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them.
Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent.
-Rumi
