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My Equinox

I'm not one for elaborate ritual; it has its place, and there are times when I feel the need for incense and candles and carefully composed prose, but yesterday was not one of those times. Yesterday was a day for quiet reflection, for simply getting out in the fresh air, for feeling the ebb and flow.

I sat on a log, that at high tide is submerged, and pondered the cycles we are all a part of. The tides come and go, the sun rides across the sky, the seasons change. We can either resist and force our way through life struggling against the tides or we can embrace the never ending cycle of change.

Now is the time for reflection, for preparing for for the cold, dark days ahead. It is hard to think of winter when the sun shines, it is hard to let go of summer; but just as my wife busies in her kitchen preserving the hedgerow harvest so I must too. My harvest is the harvest of the soul, the harvest of dreams. Now is the time to take all that is good and pickle it! Its been a tough year at times and the gains have been hard won.  But they have been won.

I had a dream of a quiet life, a druid's life. Simple and honest. Three years ago I took a chance and walked away from the job that was killing me; I said goodbye to a steady income and healthy bank balance. I cut up my credit card and moved 300 miles from everything I knew and understood, and, may the Lady bless her for it, my wife made that leap with me without fear or complaint.

I'm not going to lie, there have been times when I thought it had all been a dreadful mistake. There have been times when I really didn't think I could do it, when everything I tried seemed to come to nothing, but this year has seen the first seeds of our dreams bear fruit.

Now I have to take the good and discard the bad, preserve the things worth saving, nurture them through the dark days ready to plant again. I had a dream of a quiet life, a druids life. Simple and honest.

I had a dream and I'm living it.