the quiet time
I stood outside on the slippery deck in the dead, still quiet of a November morning, with fog all around and nothing in the air but the sound of water dripping from branches and the lone call of a bird.
It's the dead time of year, and still. Summer is long gone, and even though it's easy to remember what sunshine on the grass feels like, it's been a long time since I experienced it. It's past, and passed away.
The fog wraps around the trees, around the neighbors' houses, around me like moist and lukewarm insulation. As I stand still and listen, I feel my spirit stand still and listen. My life is not moving now, either.
I know that winter - the dark days and the spark of light that comes at Yule - will turn things around. The year wheel will turn, as it constantly turns, even as the Earth turns under our feet. There has to be this quiet, still time, the death before the rebirth, before the Spring begins to stretch and waken from its sleep, before the light returns, and before my life can go forward again and I can find my place in the world.
The Gods know when that time will be. That time is not yet here. I am charged with keeping the silence, with embracing the stillness, and with being alert to the signs of wakening. I will enjoy the quiet.
It's the dead time of year, and still. Summer is long gone, and even though it's easy to remember what sunshine on the grass feels like, it's been a long time since I experienced it. It's past, and passed away.
The fog wraps around the trees, around the neighbors' houses, around me like moist and lukewarm insulation. As I stand still and listen, I feel my spirit stand still and listen. My life is not moving now, either.
I know that winter - the dark days and the spark of light that comes at Yule - will turn things around. The year wheel will turn, as it constantly turns, even as the Earth turns under our feet. There has to be this quiet, still time, the death before the rebirth, before the Spring begins to stretch and waken from its sleep, before the light returns, and before my life can go forward again and I can find my place in the world.
The Gods know when that time will be. That time is not yet here. I am charged with keeping the silence, with embracing the stillness, and with being alert to the signs of wakening. I will enjoy the quiet.