Love Keeps Winter Away.

Here is Biddy, dressed in white.
Give her something to get through the night.
Here is Biddy, dressed inwhite.
Give poor Biddy a little light.

Give poor Biddy Somthing!
Look, her clothes are torn.
Give poor Biddy something!
Look, her shoes are worn.

Here is Biddy, dressed in white.
Give her something to get through the night.
Here is Biddy, dressed in white.
Give poor Biddy a little light.

--Traditional Irish song to the goddess Brigid

Winter's night is passing, but winter can remain within our souls unless we reachout our hands to offer the warmth of human kindness to our friends and loved ones.

I've definitely been feeling the need to reach out, of late... to those I love - my family and my friends, and that reaching out does warm the frigid, hard winter that lingers, and bites the extremities just to remind us of Her presence.

This past weekend Mir and I shared the horse racing, something we often do, though I will admit that I usually can watch the streaming as well - but streaming here, just isn't happening, (and it's not just my internet connection, it's the whole of Egypt), so I chose by the numbers, and she by her knowledge of the horses, coupled with what she could see of them on the live feed from the track. Another connection - a reaching out - a togetherness. She whooped my ass, btw, on Saturday convincingly and by points on sunday too, though with a superfecta and an exacta under my belt I was ahead on 'earnings.' Overall I think she had the better results though - but I digress...

The fun, the togetherness and the anticipation of Easter, of the summer, of the times to come... days in the hammock, evenings by the fire, weekends on the lake, and at Biltmore... all things I've dreamed of recently, help to drive the cold of winter back... stepping out into the light.

Of friends - or at least people I know - I had a thought as I was coming back to my apartment, walking up from where the cab dropped us all after going to the Metro to pick up a few things, which was that working abroad - internationally, is weird. Maybe it's because school ferries us all into work on busses, the ultimate carpool, I guess, but so many of us know where each other live, get off the bus, walk to the same area - it just struck me as a weirdness as I was walking back. I've not been in a position to carpool like this before - I suppose the nearest I came was when I used to go to school with Suzie when I was working at Abbey all those years ago, and then it was just one other person - everyone in the UK seems to go to work and come home by themselves - so this is a new experience for me. Yeah, sometimes I miss the 'quiet time' of travel (particularly if I want to be reading my kindle), I tend not to say much when travelling, which I'm working on, and have been for a while, but knowing where the people you work with are, in a way is kind of comforting. I went into a bit of a consciousness stream there somewhere along the way, apologies, and I don't know how it relates to winter and spring, unless winter is being alone, and spring is with being with others. I don't know.

All I know is that I'm doing my best to let winter fade into obscurity... and to embrace the spring.