beginnings

hello you,

our first snows fall and melt in ground. the evergreens are lit with single water drops. quickly our wood pile dissolves to sparks and ash and, thankfully, to warmth.

winter is coming.

with it, beginnings. i love to remember that the pagan wheel of the year begins now (on paper; really it goes on and on). saying hello and farewell again to our ancestors. saying hello and farewell again to our grief. saying hello to living in my heart.

for the first time in my life, i feel acceptance that i am not (only) my body and my mind. i have heard this so many times and not understood. these days, i feel it true. and, even now, i have to include "only"  in honour of these parts of me that serve and give and are my constant companions. feels like an awareness that there is someone else in the room. Someone Else. Other. That great mystery we've heard so much about lives inside Is us.

and, i'm learning to walk with compassion and forgiveness. every day, i forgive. i forgive every day. that is one of my wishes for this moon cycle. reminds me of my friend d saying, "forgive god." when i hate someone i love, forgive. when i cannot understand why someone is making the choices they are making, compassion. for myself, i mean.

yes, it begins here. we already know that, don't we, the way we know the alphabet. but now i'm soaking in it, bringing compassion and forgiveness into my skin and my soul. another wish, and it's true.

kate