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In the old days, people would hibernate somewhat in the winter.  Tools would be repaired, activities went from tending the earth to resting.  Animals were tended but outside work was minimal mostly because the weather prohibited it.  Though there were worries about food and fuel lasting through the dark times, it was a quieter more restful time of the year.

Now we don't have the luxury of staying indoors by a warm fire.  We also don't have to worry about food or fuel being scarce.  The frenetic pace of life continues even when we get a snowstorm dropping inches of snow on us.  We wait until the plows dig us out and continue with our lives.  Rarely do we take a day or week or more to stay at home, cuddle in and ignore the fast pace life we normally have.  

I’m sorry to say I went black Friday shopping.  My daughter wanted to go and she dragged me along.  I didn’t mind the craft stores but the others were too much.  Winter is a time to go within and reflect on what’s needed.  Black Friday shopping is definitely not anywhere near an internal reflective state.

While one of my daughters was home for Thanksgiving we went and did things almost non-stop.  We ran errands, cooked food, went to a movie.  It was go go go from the time she got home.  It made me cranky. 

In my day job, I've been struggling with a few issues.  The stress has been higher than normal making me fall into old bad habits.  I'd love to say I recognized this immediately and countered it but of course I didn't.  I got in a rut.

As I recognized (finally) what I was doing and the rut I'd been spinning my wheels in, I returned to techniques I knew worked.  Stress is bad for my gout.  It makes it flare up and cause me a great deal of pain.  

The days are getting longer.  Even if the weather is still winter, I can start to see the energy of spring building as we step forward day by day.  My day job is at a university so the new semester has started and the insanity in my day job is stressful and chaotic.  This reminds me of the energy spring brings.

Spring season is all about new beginnings, fresh starts, and moving forward.  In my way of doing things, I’ve considered over winter what is important, what I need to work on.  I may have (very likely have) made a to do list of what I need to do for my goals – what the next steps will be.  

Whenever I’ve gone to a quiet place in my head, it’s been the same.  I find myself on a path in the woods.  It’s always fall and always leads to a pool with a waterfall.  There’s a stone there large enough for me to sit on or lean against.  For years when I sought out a quiet, centered place in my mind, inevitably this is where I’d end up.  I could feel the crisp coolness of the autumn day, smell the fresh air with a hint of drying corn (yes I grew up on a farm where we did this), and feel the bite of winter.

The other night when I sought out my center, my balance.  I didn’t go there.  I tried.  I was tired, wanted to destress and wanted the familiar and the comfortable of this scene.  My mind didn’t go there.  Even when I tried to visualize it, I couldn’t find it.  It was like a door closed in my mind.

In the month of September I attended two Pagan Pride Days (I taught a workshop at one, met Selena Fox at another), attended an Equinox ritual, officiated a same-sex Pagan wedding, finally started my new career as a child and family therapist, and co-facilitated a ritual for World Goddess Day (to list just a few things).  In these past four, glorious weeks, it seems like my life has moved forward by leaps and bounds, but really, I feel like everything is spinning out of control.  Rather than celebrating, I find myself freaking out, closing myself off, and retreating.

Dua, Maat, you who were with Ra from the beginning.

Mistress of the two lands, Lady of truth, dua, hail and welcome.