It’s the first Monday in January and I’m still waiting for winter. Well, winter’s here, yet I’m waiting for winter snow. We’ve had flurries and dustings and minor accumulations. Nothing lasting. Since the solstice, we’ve had some bitter cold. We’ve had some biting winds. What we’re missing is that blanket of snow that covers and protects life as I know it. Well… life as I knew it. Once upon a time.
Today will be cold again, with the winds taking a break before picking up again tomorrow. And there’s no snow in the 10-day forecast.
I sit here in the pre-dawn darkness, sending prayer, journaling, cursing our collective fossil fuel addiction, and so many conventions that starve and deplete Gaia, and all her kin. And, lest it be missed, that includes us two-leggeds. I sit here in the pre-dawn darkness recalling a 30 year old memory of the first time I saw robins in February, and my expression at that time, “this can’t be good.” We’ve had winter robins ever since. It wasn’t always like that. Once upon a time.
Today, not for the first time, I’ll be sending protective prayers to the garlic, shallots, and all the perennials, and the winter seeds. I’ll offer my intentions and actions to my beloved Gaia, and all her kin, for passive protection, sure, and also that we may revolt against the behaviors and actions that starve and deplete her, and all her kin.
I invite you to consider your behaviors and actions. I invite you to consider those that nourish and sustain life, and those that deplete and starve life. Those that add value, and those that add waste. I invite you to consider how you might shift your conduct so that it may be more restorative, less wasteful, more harmonic, less compliant to the ill willed, indoctrinated conventions of these times in which we live.
For decades, I’ve been shifting my ways. It feels so lonely. And here in the dark of early morning, my ancestors whisper (especially my rooted kin) that it wasn’t always like this. It wasn’t always lonely. And it doesn’t have to be.
May this invitation inspire you into action… today, and every day, one gesture at a time, one choice at a time, small magick and large, alone and with as much community as you can inspire, in reciprocity with and for Gaia, and all her kin. For the collective future of all life. May this invitation inspire a new and renewed once upon a time.
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