Tell her to hold on. Tell her to hold on tight. Even through the darkest of night.
Sometimes
When we’re lost
We have to light our own candle
And find our way
Through the loneliest of places
Through the darkest of places
And when we’ve learnt from those places
Only then
Do we find our way
Back home to ourselves
Athey Thompson
“When I am silent, I fall into the place where everything is music.” — Rumi
Whew, it’s definitely time for a Rumi quote to bring down sky high BP.
Today is Martin Luther King Day and that petty psychopathic orange POS removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from the list of fee-free days for our national parks and replaced them with days like Flag Day (his birthday).
My governor, California’s Governor Newsom, countered by making over 200 California State Parks free on MLK Day.
Enjoy this silent and stark tree from Mt. San Jacinto near Palm Springs, California.
Silence is healing.
(It’s time to block out harsh reality for a while and return to pretty pictures and words.)
You see
We are all
Nothing but Stars
Passing each other
In the night.
A Little Poem by Athey Thompson
Art by Tijana Lucovik
Mother’s Night (Mōdraniht) is an ancient Germanic/Anglo-Saxon tradition, celebrated on the eve of the Winter Solstice, marking the first night of Yule to honor ancestral mothers, female deities like Frigg, and the divine feminine, to focus on nurturing, protection, and rebirth. It’s a solemn yet festive night for remembrance, offerings, and connecting with life’s cycles, often involving candles, feasts, and rituals for the “Disir” (mother spirits).
The first thing that comes to my mind is to honor my very own Mother Spirit with some yummy chocolate, so I will!
Winter solstice —
the farthest touch
of dark.
The sun’s been
arching back,
breathing behind the clouds,
taking its time,
waiting
for you, too. –Tanya Markul
❄
Here are a few positive affirmations to greet this winter solstice:
❄ Embrace the Darkness – I welcome the darkness, for within it lies the seeds of new beginnings.
❄ Find Inner Light – I am a beacon of light, radiating warmth and positivity even in the coldest of times.
❄ Release and Renew – I release what no longer serves me, making space for growth and transformation.
❄ Connect with Nature – I am attuned to the rhythms of the Earth, finding harmony in its cycles.
❄ Cultivate Gratitude – I am grateful for the lessons of the past and the opportunities of the future.
Curated from rebeccadouglas.co.uk
This photo was taken at the beach on a spectacularly warm December afternoon. The sky was blue and the Pacific Ocean was full of sparkles; a magnificent day.
Ode To Our Ocean
The sea sings out to its many saviors:
Teenagers with fists thrust into the air at climate strikes,
Scientists converging around their data,
A child who stoops to scoop up a piece of trash.
The sea sings out for its singular subjects:
Arching whales that wave from their waves,
Turtles that teeter down their shining shores,
Coral reefs shining brightly as cities.
The sea sings out its suffering,
Knowing too much of waste, screeching sounds
And pernicious poison, its depths bruised by
Atrocities in the Atlantic,
Misery in the Mediterranean,
Its tides the preservers of time past.
The story of the ocean and the story of humanity
Are one and the same, a Great River that
Knows no borders and notes no lines,
Only ripples.
While we might call it the Seven Seas,
Today we sing out your true name:
The one ocean.
For no matter how we try to separate your waters,
You are the colossus that connects us.
Water makes up 70% of Earth,
70% of the human heart,
And 70% of the human being,
All of us, bodies of water,
For we, too are oceans,
Or at least beings bobbing in the same boat.
To stand up for for our ocean
Is to stand up for our own ship
The sea is a restless, strong collective of many pieces.
So are we.
The ocean can recover.
And so will we.
Let us not divide the tides,
But discover all they have to teach us–
Green meadows of sea grass that survive pathogens,
Blue-bloodied marine snails that can fight off viruses.
There are more lessons to learn,
Still more work to be done.
So we lift our faces to the sun.
May the seas help us see healing and hope,
May we sing out the ocean’s survival and revival.
Being the people of this blue planet is our most
Profound privilege and power,
For if we be the ocean’s saviors,
Then it is surely ours.
Written by Amanda Gorman for World Oceans Day. Harvard graduate Gorman is an American poet, activist, and model. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate.
Let the beauty of the sunrise keep your heart warm.
Lailah Gifty Akita
To fall asleep under the glow of a super moon and wake up to this gorgeous view is the embodiment of a joyful life.
For a few seconds, the sky was really this vibrant and intense before fading. It literally took my breath away. What a lovely way to start a new day!
#grateful #gratitude
This WordPress snow feature has always made my childsoul irrationally happy. For some reason, it was removed for a few years, but now it’s back, and it’s joyful!
I love snow…and it rhymes with crow!
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Robert Frost
I don’t know what everyone else will be doing on this day that really doesn’t seem to celebrate anything but a toxic and heartless dominance over indigenous peoples, but in my little world, except for family, there isn’t a whole lot to be grateful for. This is a Thanksgiving mainly of fear for the future, an unsettling feeling that we don’t know when the other shoe will drop and this country will erupt in absolute and total chaos.
But that’s just me…
“Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.” Joy Harjo
While we’re in the midst of preparations to enjoy a feast with friends and family tomorrow, I hope we don’t forget to honor, and with gratitude, recognize the Indigenous Peoples.
For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning and protest because it commemorates the arrival of settlers and the oppression and genocide that followed.
“Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.” Chief Seattle
“When you know who you are when your mission is clear, and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart; no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive.” – Chief Seattle, Suquamish/Duwamish (1786-1866)
Chief Seattle (more correctly known as Seathl) was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, but I bet he regretted it as soon as he realized what it really meant to his people.
Photo of people and tents and quote credit to Chief Seattle and Native Red Cloud Maȟpíya Lúta~Hińhan Wakangli. Photo credit of Chief Seattle from Wiki
“Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair.”
From Brown Penny by W.B. Yeats
…they opened their wings
softly and stepped
over every dark thing.
Mary Oliver
Sitting at the top of a tree near the lagoon, this lone egret seems deep in thought and as bewildered as I am about the time change; like why is it almost dark at 5pm?
Same, egret, same.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 