Yule and the Moon of New Beginnings
Tuesday gratefuls: Snow. Ruth at A-Basin. Gabe working puzzles. Shadow away. Goya. El Greco. Velasquez. Picasso. Pissarro. Monet. Rodin. Renoir. Cezanne. Toulose-Lautrec. Poussin. Van Gogh. Rembrandt. Holbein. Durer. Bosch. Wyeth. Hopper. Bierstadt. Pollock. Rothko. O’Keefe. Turner. Waterhouse. Giotto. Michelangelo. Da Vinci. Botticelli.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Artists
Life Kavannah: Wu Wei Shadow, my Wu Wei mistress
Week Kavannah: Gevurah strength, discipline
Creating Space: “Gevurah is the strength to create space and to hold space… it’s what helps us nurture our passions.” — Renee Fishman
Tarot: Doing a Celtic Cross spread for the New Year
One brief shining: This room resounds with silence, deafens me with its insistent beat of absence, Shadow away, yes, but also Shadow not here, no rubber tires thrown in the air, no food crunching, no water lapping, no downward Dog, no dark brown eyes gazing at mine, no hugs. Glad she returns on Saturday.
Dog journal: Nathan starts on the Dog run tomorrow. The igloo Dog house sits in its cardboard box from Chewy. The pheromones are in the mail. Doggy puzzles, tires, rubber donuts, her lobster and other favorite toys await her not so gentle chewing. Shadow’s coming home.
I enjoyed the time without her, after I finished grieving. I didn’t have to worry about her, get home faster to take care of her. No sleepless nights while she roamed outside in the cold.
Yes. I enjoyed all that. I also missed her smile, her greetings, her affection, her body curled up nose to tail beside my pillow at night. Her puppy joy at chewing, learning new tricks. Seeing the world through her eyes.
With her new learning, the Dog run, the igloo Dog house with its heater, the prozac and the pheromones, our time together will lose the edge of despair she occasioned in me from time to time. That I will not miss.
The Moon of New Beginnings: This new year, this secular new year, I plan to usher in a bit differently than the past 78.
First, I will do a Celtic Cross spread, asking the question: How can I live my best life in 2026? I’ll report back on what I discover.
Second, I will choose a year kavannah, an intention for the year at least partly based on what I learn.
Third, I will set up this computer to make my review of news sources easy to access. This will entail creating tab groups in Chrome, finding a permanent spot for my political books, and better learning how to use Substack. It will also mean creating scheduled time for this work on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Fourth. I will create a new novel project in Scrivener and continue in depth research for the revised Superior Wolf novel. More group tabs, more reading. And, time for this in my schedule.
Fifth. Shadow and I will settle into yet another new phase of our life together, one, I hope, less fraught for both of us.