Many Pathways traveled
means much Medicine gathered.
~CB

images collected by me 2023

​Imbolc has come, and the light is slowly and intentionally returning.
The stirring of nature’s new life is beginning. Ideas are taking form, as the seeds of intention are being considered. What will I grow this year? Is what I ask myself…
And as I slowly move into this new calendar year, and I find myself standing at the door of Imbolc, I acknowledge the reflection, release and calling in I have been walking.
Recently, I found myself being asked to acknowledge a part of mySelf that I put away, for safe keeping. I’ve been asked to acknowledge the pain, the horrors and the confusions,
when I was powerless, voiceless, unseen, unheard.
The act of ack-now-ledg-ment is a form of alchemy.
It takes us out of those dark and hidden places we have put parts of ourSelves for safe keeping, hiding them away from the monsters and unsafe aspects of our lives.
This is where I find myself.
Invited into a space to sit with my Self in acknowledgment.
Invited and asked to be the alchemist of my own healing.
To bring out of hiding, the final piece of myself, the one I told to wait.
There is no mining to do this time, no digging, no dark night of the soul
All that I need has already been gathered, unearthed, conjured, prayed for, revealed.
This time, it is merely the acknowledgement, a nod to the events and experiences that molded and made me. A welcoming home. To sit at the kitchen table and say
‘I see you. I know what you have gone through. You are safe with me.’
 
One of my sister-friend told me about how her indigenous peoples, The Oneida People, measure age. They do it by how many winters you have seen. I have seen 55 winters.
In that time, I have seen, felt, heard, and experienced much.
Enough to know that there is much more to come. Enough to know what freedom feels like.
Enough to know that I am not finished. Enough to know that I have just begun. Enough to know that I have not been abandoned. Enough to know that there is more, more that my human eye cannot see so easily. Enough to know that I…I am Enough…even when I don’t feel it.
 
So I stand, sit, walk and be in The Acknowledgement.
I welcome the return of the light and I pray for it to move slowly, as I feel that I need time.
It smiles at me, a broad, never-ending grin that reminds me, there is neither beginning nor end. What there is, is a spiral of life, a continuum of what was, what is and what will be.
There is time, more than I need
 
Tonight, as I acknowledge this time of year, and the return of The Light
I say and offer this prayer:
 
Dance me on the Inside
Dance me on the Outside
Dance me through this life with Love
Dance me to me to my Sacred Home
And when it grows dark
And the night burns bright and clear
Dance me to my Heart & Soul
To the place where it all began
Where I, again, can be reborn
May all conflict reap fruit
May justice come to pass
May the way be made clear enough
Aho
Amen
May it be so
 
#holyholyholy #prayer #anewyearprayer
#inthepause #winter #imbolc