ALL WINTER LONG....Celebrating the life to come forth beyond winter and it's Solstice

All winter long

Behind every thunder

guess what we heard!

---Behind every thunder 

the song

of a bird, 

a trumpeting bird.

All winter long

beneath every snowing

guess what we saw!

---beneath every snowing 

a thaw

and a growing, 

a greening and growing.

Where did we run

beyond the gate and guardsman?

Guess, if you can!

---all winter long

we ran

to the sun,

 the dance of the sun!

Native American Song

Happy Winter Solstice 2016 

As after sunset fadeth in the west William Shakespeare

 

That time of year thou mayest in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by  and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

 

William Shakespeare 

 

 

THE MOUNTAIN MELTED a prayer for The Water People at Standing Rock

  Ice Mountain melted

ages ago

and made this ridge, 

this place of changes

now we are rooted in it,

we of the old ones, 

we of the new ones from afar;

oatgrass meadow, douglas fir thicket,

we are rooted in the ridge of changes in the time of changes

The winds carry strange smells, this is a day of change

Great Ones above and below, bless us!

O shining One above, feed us with your light;

O soft ones, sky darkeners, wash us  with your rain drops!

O powers above us , bless us with your gifts,

for we reach up to you, branching wood and sap.

O Earthmother from whom we grow,

 sandy gravel into whom our roots branch wood

and sap deep down,

bless us in our night sleep, in our death and decay.

Bless us, dark earth as we give back

that which we have received

as we make a forest of blessing a ridge of blessing

for the future to grow upon.

Chinook Psalter