Mari Lwyd came for a visit to celebrate the shortest day of the year! This Welsh tradition is picking up in popularity among the more “old time religion” folks like me- pagan drawn. The darkest time of year calls for festivities and light, singing, and a cup of good cheer. Blackberry wine bottled and corked for friends and family in Fall, comes out of storage and into glasses for all. Songs of holly and ivy, pushing back darkness with candle light, and joyful voices raised together in celebration of the returning light ring through the air. There is also a feeling of stillness in the forest, dripping rain taps out a rhythm of dormancy, yet buds begin to swell on branches all around. Hints of Spring stir through rippling currents as puddles drain down the hillside and into a melodious creek.
The gray mare of winter stalks along from house to house, imagery that invokes starvation, while also heralding in tides of joy and wassailing through neighborhoods and village taverns. The Mari Lwyd comes with a troop of melodies and versus, poetry of playful wit and sharp rebuke if no spirit of generosity shines. Winter signals a shift from the labors of harvest and preservation, to the lean times of quiet reflection and hope for survival, and the sun’s warm return. I find this seasonal shift to be a good space for gratitude, community connection, and inside revelry. Board games are played, puzzles are solved, and a few days of feasting help tide us through dark cold months ahead. If only we could fully hibernate, shutting down our senses and sleeping through to next Spring. Still, in Western Washington, the blossoms will return by February, and soon, mid march will offer us respite and regrowth as waking fertility returns.
I took a walk around the land barefoot, feeling the wet, cold ground under me, connecting to the winter feel of it, for our temperate plain. The picture below captures so much of what I am grateful for here at EEC Forest Stewardship- from the animals of Leafhopper Farm, to the forest growing up around us, with more trees to plant and better restoration to come. Ewes in the bard feast on alfalfa, and grow little lambs that will start dropping in the next few weeks. Valley runs towards me with a tennis ball, eager to fetch again across the wide open pasture scapes that allow a full throttle sprint and plenty of visual ground to chase a ball down. Shelters remain dry and warm, grasses continue to grow, and a break in the rain lets me take time to wonder at this living, thriving place I call home. There are still areas to clean up, improve, and replant. These future projects are what add great spice to the daily routines of feeding and watering, chopping and hauling, farm labor that is, for me, worthy living. Much thanks to all that goes into this gift, on one person’s experience tending place and regenerating temperate rainforest here in The Pacific Northwest.
Thank you to all who take time to read these reflections, spending time with me at EEC, and to those who hold a thread in my life- near and far. Thank you for letting me be a part of your lives, sharing stories, laughs, cries, but most importantly, genuine connection. Love to my family- you are beautiful people that mean the world to me, and I’m glad to be in it with you. Joy, wonder, learning, and a cup of good cheer to all in this time of solstice magic and the celebration of returning light. Merry merry and Happy New Year!
EEC Forest Stewardship 