Many Thoughts At Imbolc

[cedar_grove]

Every day, every night
that I praise the goddess,
I know shall be safe:
I shall not be chased,
I shall not be caught,
I shall not be harmed.
Fire, sun, and moon
cannot burn me. Not
lake nor stream nor sea
can drown me. Fairy
arrow cannot pierce me.
I am safe, safe, safe,
sing her praises.

--The shield of Brigid, Irish prayer

Today we hope for more than just a good crop and no epidemics, good weather for the harvest and nothing to cripple our children. But is this not all we could hope for: enough to nourish us, both spiritually and physically, and people aorund us who love us?

One of the four major festivals is on us today, Imbolc, the first of spring in the old ways - or should I perhaps say a precursor to spring... the kindling of the new fire in the hearth, in the year.

That this prayer is for protection is not entirely lost on me either. Not that I feel unsafe, I hasten to add, not even at the sounds of distant gunfire... and yes, I hear it every now and again. Nor is the hopes of good health. Yesterday I started feeling unwell, and seem to have picked up whatever fluey bug is doing the rounds at school. New country, new germs... but yes, really not feeling happy. It will pass, like all things, and everything will be well again... and I'll be looking back on today wondering what all the fuss was about as the blanket of snowdrops heralds the coming of spring. I speak figuratively of course. I don't think they have snowdrops in Egypt.

But as I'm sitting here, eyes closed, following the train of thought through my meditations, the sound I hear is the sound of the wind coming in through my kitchen fan. Outside of my kitchen is the passageway between buildings, and it's like a wind tunnel, so the wind is whistling thought the spinning fan, and it sounds like I imagine the wind across the snowy plains of the arctic sound - a strange sound to be hearing when sitting and thinking about spring.

I think about reading too... have been thinking I haven't done enough of it, and that I'm going too slowly thought the books I need to read. I signed up yesterday for the Reada-thing that Librarything are doing. Of course, I won't be reading Dickens. I never could get along with him - a bad experience with Great Expectations at school, I think, is what put me off... but I have plenty to read, and having a set time to sit down and do some reading will work well. I might even add more times yet. I don't know. I do know I want to finish this current book... most definitely. I wouldn't say I wasn't enjoying it, but... I've read better. As a three word review of the first quarter of the book, it's not terribly encouraging.