Goddess of Winter

Here she comes at last! Cailleach Bheur, just blew in on the blustery, cold wind this evening. As the earth is so splendidly dying, she flies about, whipping up the dead leaves with her gnarly broom, sending them spinning into dry raspy whirlpools that tease the cats. She vows to bring in the Winter storms as she shrieks and moans whenever the bare tree limbs catch her dreaded hair! ~SmG~

The Changing Of The Guard

Last night's Presidential debate focused a spotlight on how very much alike our two main parties actually are. With Mitt Romney agreeing on so many points with the President, he was basically telling us that he would not make any changes in the way we conduct business with the rest of the world, and yet he would of course spend more money on our military. A military that already has a budget bigger than China, Russia, France, the UK and Japan combined! Both men strongly support our use of drone attacks on other countries supposedly to keep America safe, completely disregarding any talks about how many innocent lives are lost to this sadistic program. Although the debate was supposed to be on foreign policy, both candidates seemed bent on bringing almost every question back to the domestic issues. I got the feeling neither candidate wants the citizens of the US focusing too much on foreign affairs. Both men believe that it's the so called "honorable" position of the United States of America to police the rest of the world, to assist in toppling governments and regimes that we don't like or who are not friendly toward our interests!
We have other choices in this changing of the guard, but we have not been allowed access to these. Main stream media has very cleverly kept the majority of the population in this country in a very controlled blackout of the information that would help us to see that we are being manipulated. Only by doing the work individually of looking and digging through other news sources can we pull ourselves up out of the quagmire of the propaganda that we are being fed by the media.
There is still, however, the issue of the way our two party system has such a strong hold on the way our government runs. Yes, we have others who are running for the office of the President of the United States, but our system is designed, unfortunately, to make it virtually impossible for any of the other parties to gain a foothold. Here, I have had to look to the advise of someone's ideas that I respect very much and that is Noam Chomsky who said recently, “The Republican organization today is extremely dangerous, not just to this country, but to the world. It’s worth expending some effort to prevent their rise to power, without sowing illusions about the Democratic alternatives.” Bingo!
As Daniel Ellsberg wrote so eloquently in an article I just posted yesterday, "The reelection of Barack Obama, in itself, is not going to bring serious progressive change, end militarism and empire, or restore the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s for us and the rest of the people to bring about after this election and in the rest of our lives -- through organizing, building movements and agitating." Ellsberg's advise to the voters in the swing states who might be thinking that they cannot vote for either Romney or Obama, is important advise. In other words, in the states that are critical to the election, a vote for a third party is a vote for Romney. After many months of considering what to do myself, I came to the conclusion that it's more important than ever right now to keep our country from falling into the hands of these extreme right wing neo-cons, that Romney has embraced.
The two men running for the highest office in our land are only different in the way they will lead. Romney has time and time again outright lied, changed his approach to the important issues and has offended many leaders in the countries he has visited during his campaign. Many claim that Romney has been misunderstood because of media propaganda. I don't think he is misunderstood at all. I understand him to be a man who has throughout his life always had his own way, I understand he thinks it is his destiny to become the President. I understand he sides with those who believe women should stay silent and submissive. I understand he is out of touch with those who who basically should be running this country, and that is the people!!!
I have no illusions that voting for Obama for a second term will bring us the much needed changes that we all hope for. The economy is in shambles and the actions taken by our government toward countries that should be left to make their own choices bring us frightfully closer to another unwanted war. But keeping this President in office, I think is a very crucial first step toward that change. Voting this time is about voting against, more than its about voting for. Blaming one man for the problems we face is not realistic when you realize that the men and women who make up the rest of the government are the ones who in the end are responsible.
We have a Republican majority run Congress and this is the issue before us right now. This Congress who stated four years ago that their main purpose, their main job was going to be to make sure that Obama was a one term President! So after four years of this kind of focus, we see basically that our representitives were not concerned with fixing the mess this counry has been in. No, they were concerned with personality. They were concerned with their own self interests. They forgot the American people to fight one man.
Now the American people have a decision to either tell this Congress with our votes that we won't tolerate another four years of this kind of lunacy.
We are all given the privilege to cast our votes however we see fit. I hope we all vote very thoughtfully and without prejudice.

The Rock

The Rock just couldn't remember how many centuries he had been in this same spot in the river. His surface was creviced and scared by the relentless rushing of the water as she molded and shaped and dug away at his edges until he was as smooth as glass in some spots. He had seen so many seasons come and go, had captured so many falling leaves, only to have them swept away by the wind and rain, some being carried on downstream as the river swelled and overflowed her boundaries after a heavy rainfall. Often the decaying debris from the trees that shaded him, collected in the deep, pools that had formed over time on his aged and wizened face. Soft moss crept across the landscape and held tiny beads of splashed up water, glistening in the sun like diamonds.
I could feel the pulsing of the river and the rock beneath my hands as I sat with upturned face to the sun and wondered how the Rock had contented himself to remain in the same spot he had for all this time. It must be wonderful Rock, for you to be so privileged to hear the song of this river every day, and night, the gurgling and the splashing and the leaping for joy that seems to be reaching my ears as I sit here in this solitude. "Are you serious?" Spoke the Rock. "Think you could have endured for centuries her never ending chattering? Oh for the chance for just one moment to be able to hear nothing at all!" "Then why do you stay," I inquired of this wise old Rock. "My roots run deep here and I've seen so many glorious days and splendid star filled nights. Many seasons have come and gone, the deer and the fox come to bend over my edge to drink from the river. Sometimes when the summers bring in the droughts, her voice is reduced to a mere whisper and when I am witness to that much dismay in her soul I rejoice when once again the rains fill her up and she is able to shout at me once more"

The love we two have made
Is the light, inside of me
That just keeps getting brighter.

Love's Secret Garden

They climb a garden wall
That is so very high,
And all the flowers there within
Reach up fair petals to the sky.

A sanctuary for two lovers
Thick bows of canopy overhead;
To dapple the dew sweet heather,
Where they make their passion bed;

They meet in love's sweet shadow
Where time has no real power
And somehow fit eternity,
Planting secrets in their garden
If only for an hour.


SMG 2012

Redefining Relationships

We are in a time now where it has become possible to reach out far beyond our own neighborhoods and even our own borders to connect with a wider group of people. Because of the internet and social blogging/networking sites we meet a plethora of groups of people from every walk of life. Sometimes deep and abiding friendships are formed. Binding us for many years to relationships of support, camaraderie and sometimes everlasting love.

The very fact that we "talk" with these friends so easily via our computers cements the familiarity we feel. We get to know their families, their friends and we exchange a lifetime of stories that help us to know each other in sometimes intimate ways. We could be no more greatly connected than if we lived with these people in our own neighborhoods for our entire lives. W know their triumphs, their sorrows, and their joys. We become friends in every sense of the word.
Many times people find those who become their life partners on the internet. And even when it might take many years to finally find a way to manifest into each others physical reality, the time and distance has no bearing on the emotional attachment and commitment the two develop.

I've known personally many of my friends who have traversed this unfamiliar path. Finding ways to navigate these new waters with grace and dignity, selflessness, love and commitment. Some have moved great distances, even leaving their own homelands to be with their loved one. Others have had to let it go and walk away, finding that the distance and the effort and money spent trying to build a life together, too much of a burden, the forced separation, too painful to bear. Some of the difficulties couples like this who desire to be together, is made more impossible by government regulations about travel, immigration, citizenship and health care.

There are as many different situations as there are people who create them. No one way is the right way to continue and develop relationships in this ever shifting time we fine ourselves in now. What if you find yourself in a relationship that seems to be at a standstill? What if your plans and dreams to be united with a loved one seems to be taking forever in becoming a reality?

This forces us to take a moment to think of what we are giving and getting from these kinds of relationships. We have apparently created them this way for our personal life lessons. We must look inside and ask why are we continuing when so many obstacles stand before us. I might interject here that we put those obstacles up. We are not victims of some outside invisible force that puts them there. The obstacles we create have their functions. And when we are done with whatever lesson that obstacle was in place for, it seems to disappear.

The most important thing in this globalized neighborhood I think we should remember, is to find the joy in every relationship. Look for the love that is there. Sometimes when two are joined, one of the two will be able to do more, or give more at some particular time than the other. That's ok as long as the one giving realizes that's the job they took on. If one feels they are getting depleted or tired or discouraged, there is no shortage of friends they can find, that give back support to them that can lift them back up again. If a relationship hurts beyond bearing you can let it go. But remember that you might have decided yourself to experience that kind of hurt and disappointment. We are all mirrors for each other. Every time you draw someone in that causes heartache you must ask yourself, "what did I need that for? What is it about me that I am wanting to learn?" When you are able to answer that question honestly, you can be grateful to the one who held that mirror up for you, that they agreed to help you in that way, and you can love them for that.

Yes, we are in a time of re-defining relationships. We no longer are limited to the way of living in a community for all our lives, seeing the same faces, marrying and raising our children in that same community. We are reaching out, we are expanding our horizons and our way of living. Sometimes we might "know" someone online for many years without ever meeting face to face but we grow very fond of and we love deeply. We spend many years laughing together, crying together, arguing together. Never meeting face to face does not diminish the emotional commitment we make to each other. But it does mean that we are learning a new way to be together. To be connected.

Namaste

Eternal

Eternal

Down that dusty road I watched you go,
My ears still ringing with your words:
"I love you so."

Sun bright and golden in your hair;
Back so straight, shoulders squared,
Dreams we shared now put on hold;
To beg you stay I was not so bold.

Proud to answer your country's call,
As you faded from view I prayed;
"Don't let him fall."

"I'll wait forever!" I shouted to the wind
As out of sight you turned the bend.
My words now a sentence for the ages;
My living, a toil to turn the pages.

Ever searching, just out of reach,
Never making it past the breach
Of long-forgotten pacts made twixt just two
Who swore an oath of all we'd do

To keep the shroud of forgetting from our minds
So to peer at last into familiar eyes.

And though I sit in my solitude pondering,
Remembering parting words and weary of wandering,
But feeling still the warmth of your leaving hand in mine
I swear I'll walk with you 'til the end of time!

~Sheila MacGregor from "Quiet Reflections" ~ October 2008~