WELCOME 2013!

'Tis a new calendar year...

We've decked the halls, burned the Yule log, torn the wrapping paper from gifts, popped the Champagne, and cleaned up from the parties.  So...now what?

My darling Lair companions, it's now time (as it always is) to celebrate the seasonal abundance of Winter!  Look around you...

Here, at the Lair, the trees are brazenly exposing their architecturally minimalist natures, the Pond is glazed every morning with a thin layer of glassy ice, and the songbird are "decking the Gardens" with shades of charcoal and scarlet. We've been blessed with rains, snow, ice, AND bright winter sunshine within the past two weeks! The bracing winds and temperamental weather outside encourage us to "nest" and cuddle.  It's a time of organization and introspection--of cleaning our environment of the "needless detritus collected and unused AND of cleaning our selves of those considerations that draw us from our "real" purpose and focus.

Rather than make resolutions, I encourage you to Refocus and Renew this season...to look within and find what needs Renovating...to Resuscitate your true self.  Extract yourself from the negative energies--acknowledge their ability to teach and then embrace the positive motivation they give you to adapt and change.

Welcome to 2013, my dear ones...and to the softness of THIS year's Moonlight...

In Dark Silence come Whisperings of New Beginnings...

Blessed Samhain to you all, my dear Lair guests!  It's been many a Moon since I attended you all.  For that, I beg your forgiveness.

Tonight, when the sun sinks low in the Western sky and the light softens to a violet, our celebrations and observances of the Dark Half begin.  Hearth fires will be extinguished and new fire will be kindled.  Many of us will dance 'round the bonfires (for the dwellers at the Lair, it's a firepit) as we commune with the Spirits.  Within the "death" honored tonight is also the promise of renewal.

The veil is thinnest tonight--our ancestors return to impart their Wisdom to us as seed is spread prior to germinating.  The planting commences for them...but will be reap a Harvest of knowledge or insight?  'Tis ours to tend, to nurture, and to gather.

Listen intently...let your focus soften and your awareness sharpen.  Do you hear them?  Do you feel the soft breeze of their whisper at your ear?  Do you feel the draw?

Blessed Samhain, my friends.  Bright blessings to you all!

In the softness of the Moonlight...

The Crow Moon Cometh

Changes come and we in the Pagan community tend to look for signs--harbingers--that herald the alterations in our lives.  Invariably, the "new" is questioned, weighed, and then we look to see if {DRUMROLL} "Mercury is in retrograde."

Does this sound familiar, my darling Lair residents?  Do we question "where" change came from or do we {GASP} embrace it regardless of its origins and make the best of our situation?  Do we focus on what was or what might become?  Do we doubt or welcome?

The Crow Moon, according to my new little MoonPhase app, is the Northern Tribes' name for the full moon which will take place on March 8th (or thereabouts).  Though it goes by other names, this moniker designated, to the Old Ones, that the crow was taking flight to be replaced by the robin.  It's a Moon of balance...of growth...of renewal and change.  It's to be embraced.  It heralds the season of Ostara and the coming of our celebration OF Ostara.  Spring is change...it is balance...it is life.

So, my darling ones, embrace the new surrounding you...live in the moment...and know that She will not abandon you.  She, too, is finding Her new, invigorated form as Maiden, full of hope and life and renewal. 

In the softness of the Moonlight...

Loss and Grieving

Yesterday, quite suddenly, life here at the Lair was turned upside down.  My dear companion of the past twelve years--a handsome, black & white, neutered domestic longhair named Ozzie, had to cross the Rainbow Bridge due to complications from undiagnosed and untreatable cancer.  He's been my assistant, my confidante (albeit we have three loyal and loving pups), and my sounding board since he was 5-weeks old.  It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make and yet one of the most peaceful and graceful moments I've ever been honored to witness and be part of.  He curled into me--visibly exhausted and "ready," purring as loudly as ever he did, nursing one last time on my earlobe--and then they administered the medicines.  He merely fell asleep mid-purr, still curled gracefully and lovingly in my arms, paws holding me. 

I miss him so very much. 

He's buried, with his sister--Athena--who some of you know succumbed to kidney disease two Yules ago, under my outdoor altar by the Pond...between two magenta crepe myrtles.  Still a companion and still my assistant...just without rather than within. 

I'll be posting again soon...but thought all you dear ones would care to know why there's a bit of a shift in the energies.  I've an emptiness within me that's going to take a while to heal. 

In the softness of the embracing Moonlight...

Late Autumn Musings

The "Poetic Mind" is strong this late autumn afternoon.  My daily commute, as I've mentioned previously, takes me through an as-yet-unscathed patch of north Texas ranchland.  A few moments ago, as I drove the rugged lane through the top section of the ranch--passing native Longhorns and Jerseys grazing in the waning golden beams of late afternoon, a snippet of a new poem tentatively took hold of me.  It's been many-a-year since She graced me with an inspirational muse!

As you, dear ones, have never (I don't believe) read any of the pieces I've previously written, I thought I'd "toss" this one out for your perusal...  It's quite as-yet unfinished...

There is a mellowness to the in-betweens:

An exhalation of the could-haves

And soft inhalation of anticipatory possibilities...

And, thus far, that's "it."

In the soft inspirational haze of the Autumn Moon...

Return to Fruitfulness

After over seventy days of triple-digit temperatures here in north Texas, the stifling heat of this summer has come to a simpering end.  A final "hurrah" was attempted by the spirits of summer, but to no avail.  Like a contrite sinner, the heat and has dissipated to a slow murmur in the afternoons.  Additionally, the rains have started to return to this drought-stricken land.  The deep scars in the parched earth where the ground has split for lack of water are starting to heal--the hardened crust has softened to a cushion of moist soil. 

'Tis the approach of Mabon this week and the Earth is healing itself in anticipation of the ensuing Harvest festivals.  In our Garden, the burned and decimated plants are starting to miraculously sprout and fruit once again.  Our hearty little cherry tomato plants have darling yellow flowers exploding on them--promising a riot of late harvest deliciousness!  The songbirds have returned and the dragonflies and damsel flies are dancing over the Pond once more. 

How much have we been taught in our summer inattentiveness!  Patience with the land, appreciation for the capriciousness of the rains, humility at our inability to manipulate the seasons to our own devices and desires...  She is harsh (at times) as the Mother--ever teaching and ever training--but the result is the Festal season into which we now enter.  Now begins the moment of our yearly offering of gratitude for the lessons taught. 

What have you, my dearest visitors to the Lair, taken to heart from the seasonal education of our Dear One?  What do you now reap?  What offerings can you now make in this knowledge?

Take time, my dear friends...for time is what She teaches us to have, to take, and to appreciate.  Listen to the approaching Season--it's starting its own lessons for us......

In the softness of the Moonlight...

Longhorns and Scrub Brush

Living in an extended drought in north Texas--where the meteorologists take rarified delight in reporting how very many days we've been in "triple digit temperatures"--isn't easy for one of a Nature-based Path.  The Lair's Cottage Garden is slowly wilting and crisping in the relentless sun...the deeply rich earth is cracking with the severity of the heat and dryness...the trees are even showing signs of stress.  It's difficult to embrace this situation and know that there is a plan in place...that all will be well.  The only plant that seems to still be thriving is my darling Brown Turkey fig--it's abundance belies the strife the Garden is enduring.

And so, we're in the high summer season...moving ever nearer Lughnasadh.  The daytime skies are piercing blue.  Soft pillows of poufy, white clouds whisp ever-so-gently overhead.  The earth--though in appearance dry and brittle--is covered in a melodious blanket of cicada burrs, sleepy sparrow chirrups, and the somnambulant buzzing of wasps and hornets.  At night, the cicadas give way to cricket trills and the lullaby of croaking toads at our Pond.

On my daily commute, I pass vast open ranchland.  This morning, the relentless heat and dryness was nearly forgotten.  Longhorn steer stood stalwart in an open field of scrub brush, but this field--part of a huge ranch in our county--was speckled with Prairie WindFlower, Purple Thistle, and the most riotous display of Cornflowers and Chickweed I've ever seen.  It was as if She was railing against the weather...showing us Her resiliancy and determination to bring the first of the Harvest festivals in with panache! 

I found my ability to embrace the wind and sun and brittle earth once more.  Blessed Be!

In the warmth of the summer Moonlight...
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