Hello Dear Friends,

Happy Imbolc-tide to any and all who read these words!

(…and if you’re not sure what I just said, this Wild Hunt post and this Wikipedia entry, should help)

So for the Sabbat of Imbolc, I took my Brigid Candle from that ritual a couple of years back, lit it and a stick of incense and poured a small libation of Whiskey to Brigid.

Nothing fancy, or elaborate, just a simple few moments in my day.

Lately, that seems to be all the Religious or Spiritual Practice I can manage…

I was hoping to write something eloquent, going over some of the interesting points made about this Holy Tide by Jason Mankey and Niki Whiting over at Patheos.  I was also going to wax philosophical about how Sannion’s 99 Adorations of Dionysus, and the many fabulous similar devotional works that are linked to that post’s comments section, had begun to stir my long quiescent creativity in the days before Imbolc.

This, as it turns out, is not going to be that post.  Though all of the above are interwoven inspirations on my thoughts as I write this.

Last year was a fairly tumultuous and drama filled cluster-something at my workplace.  My job ate my life and in the aftermath I am still recovering my own sense of balance and self.  I retreated from the world, and am only now realizing just how much and for how long I was in some sort of retreat mode.  There have been a lot of rough patches in my life the last three years or so, and a lot of rough patches and (metaphorical) stumbles and falls on this Pagan’s journey.

They have not been unmixed with blessings,  (Waves hello to the Fabulous Jonathan)  However, with each tumble, each rough patch I pulled back.  I retreated and spent more and more time puttering at my computer largely hiding from the world.  There have been moments of uplift and inspiration, but overall I have been curling up away from the world.

I am trying to undo the isolation and restrictions that I have placed on my creativity and joy in life.  I have started socializing with my friends more, and making new ones.  I have started DM-ing a D&D game on alternate Sundays.  This is alternated with socialization and cigars with a new-found friend and fellow Pagan.  I have been trying, once more, to use my Social Media streams for constructive and deep communication and friendship.  I have also been trying to reach out to friends old and new for either communication or the simple joy of their company.

I have not, however, been writing.

I was musing on that this morning after having ducked out of 1U Orlando, after briefly touching base with folks but feeling overwhelmed by the early onset of my allergies and fleeing for a drive before meeting my friend E for cigars and then a meeting at work.

I was thinking about my recent realization of how the perfect is the enemy of the good.  I found myself thinking about how little time I have really spent out from behind my computer, or in my car, or at work in the last few years.  I thought about how disconnected I feel from the rhythms of the natural world living in this Subtropical wonderland I now call home… and how tricky it is to connect to this new lands cycles when they seem to be regularly disrupted by climate change.

I also thought about writing, and poetry, and reading and the healing and transformational power that such things have had in my life over the years.

I thought about the many wonderful friendships that have nurtured and nourished my soul and creativity over the last 25 or so years of my 40 years on Earth.

In many ways I feel as if I am returning to my real self after too long an absence.  I feel like I am growing spiritually and emotionally once more.  I am feeling the slow stirrings of renewal and growth and healing and creativity in my soul and in my life.

So blessed Imbolc to one and all!

Pax