So long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! Good bye!

Another year ends tonight.  Whoopee!  Ok, that said, it’s been a tumultuous and at times darn right aggravatin’ year.  So many details of my life were upended and changed without my input or voice.  Not having an iota of control over my professional world really upset me these last few months and I allowed it to steal away my peaceful state of mind.  However, I am now going to pat myself on the back for several New Year Resolution accomplishments from 2012. 

This year I expanded my employability endeavors.  I began tutoring online and met with success in this venture.  I have more to do in this field and I am looking forward to the opportunity to excel. Last week another site asked me for a writing sample.  Tempting…I need to check it out and see if it is better pay or better hours than I what I am currently doing.  Right before the holiday I finished editing a novella for a young man from Haiti.  It mostly involved correcting punctuation and other mechanics, but it’s something new to add to a resume.  I also wrote a piece that got published by someone other than me.  I got paid for it even.  How cool is that?  Not too shabby on exploring other job options.

I’m making tremendous progress on the understanding of personal finance.  I’m watching more closely where our money goes.  We are learning to live within different parameters so that we can be freer in our money goals.  I’m learning and I’m spending time analyzing how we can live the lives we want to without money feeling like a burden.  I believe in being responsible and making informed choices.  I will continue to work toward independence and contentment in this area.

Another opportunity occurred when I got to visit a city I have never been to.  In September I flew to Vegas and got to spend a whirlwind weekend learning new dance moves, watching professionals demonstrate their prowess, and enjoying time with my fellow belly dancers.  While there I saw an old friend who kindly gave me the shot at getting published (thanks again, Craig!).  I got to experience a bit of Sin City; enough to realize that the strip is devoted to pleasure and vice.  You want it, they got it.  I also concluded that Vegas is not my city.  I am not meant to reside in a desert, but visiting again would be all right with me.

Along with new resume fodder, money matters and travel, I read a lot.  I wanted to read more books and I think I did.  I read everything from ridiculous sci-fi Douglas Adams style to the classic sci-fi Dune and Stranger in a Strange Land as well as non-fiction Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku, Wolf Gift by Anne Rice, and the Dalai Lama’s latest book Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World.  I averaged more than 2 books a month all year.  I love reading!  When I don’t get a juicy story to read, I feel something in my life is missing.  Each year I try to read a few more of the titles on the top 100 must read list.  Eventually I will read them all.

 A while back I started eating according to a different method.  Since then I have maintained the initial benefits of weight loss and increased health and energy.  I wanted to make sure in 2012 that I could continue the positive eating and living plan I started.  One vital part of any lifestyle change involves finding something you can keep doing without getting bored or complacent.  Eating from a primal menu brought me so many benefits that I can’t imagine going back to the way things were.  Honestly, I ate well before this switch, but I eat even better now.  No lie.  I don’t feel deprived or hungry or like I can’t manage it.  It’s simple, easy, and oh so tasty! 

Most importantly I maintained a blog all year!  Granted, once the chapter a week of Scott Cunningham’s work was finished, I slacked off on the postings, but I did find other topics to keep me writing.  By doing so I worked through some of my core beliefs and emerged even stronger in conviction.  I think my self-assignment helped me gain perspective, solidify my beliefs, and find a level of comfort in my own skin.  I honestly do believe that this is who I am and while others may not always understand or accept it, it’s my life to live, not theirs.  I will continue to live the best possible life I can on my terms. This is one resolution kept and met.  Hopefully I will get to bring a little joy to others along the way in the coming year.

One unexpected understanding that came to me this year involves happiness.  Finding what makes you happy is important.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise because it is rubbish to deny the importance of happiness in our lives.  So much heartbreak and devastation occurs in the world.  Realizing and accepting that most of it exists outside my control fills me with frustration and angst.  Finding a way to make this world a little better, a little happier challenges me.  I may not have all the answers to the world’s problems, but I can find ways to work in my own area to improve conditions here.  I can make donations, sign petitions, send my representatives letters and emails, and volunteer.  I can also find one thing each day that makes me happy and share that joy with others.  I want more happiness in my life and in my world now that we averted the Mayan apocalypse.  Time to be the change I want to see in the world.    

Yule

Happiness is a choice. 

I honestly believe that.  Unfortunately for some in society, happiness is not a choice.  Something in their bodies, minds, and spirits interferes with their ability to be happy and content.  I have no words to help them.

I do, however, have the ability to be happy myself.  I can seek peace and wonder and joy.  For that, I am eternally grateful.  Do you know what makes me happy?

1. Dancing makes me happy.  I don’t care if it is two-stepping, freestylin’ it in barefeet at a music festival or belly dancing with my favorite prop d’jour.  Dancing frees me to unparalleled levels of bliss.  I frequently cannot be dragged off the dance floor. 

2. My husband makes me happy.  He and I have known each other for over twenty years and for some reason, he still loves me just the way I am.  Fat, thin, long hair, short hair, angry, content—I’m sure he’d prefer content—but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt he loves me and always will.

photo by Micah Hewett Images

3. My friends make me happy.  Some are goofy.  Some are rowdy.  Some are intellectual and some are carefree.  I love each and every one of them as they are and for what they bring to my life.  They make me think, they offer me advice, and they keep trudging forward through this life with me.  Sometimes it’s more like separate paths that occasionally cross for brief periods of time, but I know some truly fantastic and wonderful human beings who enrich my life.

4. My family makes me happy.  The saying goes that you can’t choose your family.  In every family you have a delightful mix of personalities, quirks, and gifts.  No matter what though, we are family and we always will be despite any difference of opinion.  I can look at each one of them and always find something lovely I admire about them even if I can’t stand to spend more than a few hours around some of them.  C’mon—be honest; you know what I mean.

5. My cats make me happy.  They are three furry terrors at times and they can cause devastation in the house, but they also can be the cuddliest balls of love ever seen even when they aren’t seeking food.  A gentle head bump from Poof wakes me gently most mornings.  Link’s unbelievably loud purr calms my heart.  Hissy’s temperament makes me laugh even when I know she’d rather we humans just let her be.  They add a lot to our household despite their cat-ness.

6. Reading makes me happy.  I learn so much from books and plays and articles; I can’t put words to how happy books make me.  They take me far away from this world to someplace new and sometimes frightening.  Their protagonists help me figure out my own life’s path and the motivations of others.  I find sheer nirvana in sitting down with a cup of coffee some mornings with no further agenda than to thoroughly digest a good book.

7. Food makes me happy.  Here I am incredibly blessed with a husband whose mother taught him a love of the culinary arts.  He is skilled and he spoils me rotten with his technique.  I can give him a wacky idea and he’ll turn it into delicious dinner.  Give me spices and meat and vegetables and wine!  I love to eat!

8. Music makes me happy.  The lovely thing about music is that it suits whatever mood you may be experiencing.  You can select a sublime concerto for an afternoon’s contemplation or you can crank hard rock to release whatever raw emotion is disturbing your day.  Music always soothes no matter what the ill.

9. Nature makes me happy.  Spending time outdoors by a lake or on a mountain trail or staring at a campfire settles my spirit.  I find the natural world puzzling, peaceful, and poignant.  Learning about different and unusual life or habitats fills me wonder and delight.

10. The universe makes me happy.  I find sheer thrill in studying the planets and the stars and the Big Bang and the quasars.  Fascination.  Unbridled fascination.

At this time of year with the numerous hardships and tragedies that we as humans face on the blue marble, I wish nothing but the best for us all.  May we find the answers that bring happiness to those who cannot choose it for themselves.  May we find some way to offer joy, friendship, and harmony to everyone we meet.  Blessed be to everyone.

A Yule Blessing

Our world wrapped in darkness

We eagerly seek the light.

Together we watch and wait,

To bring hope and peace this night.

My Inner Pyro

...or Samhain Part Deux:

Part of why I absolutely love Samhain is the duality of it.  Consider my last post.  Its focus primarily rested on the concept of the dead and our reactions to them.  Samhain is a lovely time of year to remember, to honor, and to grieve.  Then there's the New Year part of things.

In a Samhain circle I love writing down all the crap that's buggin' me, pissing me off, and generally keeping me from the happy.  I've always found it intensely therapeutic to follow the acknowledgement of the dead with the cleansing of the bane.  That list of craptastic muck gets burned in the cauldron's fire.  You offer up all that you feel pressing down on you and watch it burn.  It goes away in a lovely display that is greatly satisfying.  Fire's transformative power on nature to emerge from devastation to begin new life empowers you!  Furthermore, asking your loved ones for a little cosmic bump in the pursuit of contentment really helps you remember them at their absolute best.  You draw on all that made you love them and admire them and call on that aspect from within yourself.  Your blood is their blood and it gives you strength.  

And there's candy.

Samhain

HAPPY NEW YEAR!          

That’s really what Halloween is ya know—a new year for the pagan persuasion.  I have loved Halloween over the years not just for the candy, the costumes or the decorations…ok maybe it is about the candy sometimes. 

Anyway:

Samhain brings the end of the cycle and the beginning of the new.  According to the lore, the God goes to the underworld.  Hence the dark right?  Samhain reminds us that life is life and with life, we also have death.  Honestly, Samhain easily became my sabbat of choice because of the comfort I found through grief as well as the releasing of the muck that so often gums up my engines.

Unlike some of my close friends, I admit that I have relatively low grief experience.  Three of my four grandparents have died.  That’s the closest on the family score that grief came.  All of them were elderly and sick and declining in the health well before they succumbed.  I know that each of them released from this mortal coil for the better.  That didn’t stop me from bawling my eyes out at Samhain those years mind you, but it brought me greater peace and acceptance of the end of their cycles.  

Grief is not always so peaceful, however.  I recently volunteered to help with a drum circle at a teen grief retreat.  My husband and I drum and a friend of ours asked if we could help with their drum circle.  I must admit, I was apprehensive just because I know that my grief experience is not what others sometimes go though. I went anyway. I’m glad I did.   You see, during the drum circle on the first night of retreat, the naming happens.  As we drummed, we’d pause periodically and name those who we wanted to remember that night.  I recall being absolutely petrified that I’d have to name someone knowing full well that my grief was nothing compared to that of the young faces I saw in that circle.  I couldn’t believe the number of names some of these young people rattled off.  “So much death for one so young,” I remember thinking over and over again. 

I did eventually share a name of a young lady I barely knew because a car accident took her life.  I attended her memorial and I cried then; I said goodbye.  I offered a memorial in a circle for her and the young man who also died that night following the service.  I thought that I had made peace with it.  Then I said her name in that drum circle a few weeks ago.  I was overwhelmed by the feeling of loss and the realization that her family and friends and the world at large lost something precious that night.  Maybe it was the rhythm.  Maybe it was the gathering of people who all had grief in common.  I don’t know.  I do know that the tears that sprang to my eyes surprised me.  It’s been four years this winter.  Yet that circle and that gathering, gave me more closure and acceptance than I thought I needed.   

That’s what ritual does for us.  It conjures up those emotions that make us human and gives us a forum where we can acknowledge them.  It might be in the group.  It might be in solitary.  It might be now; it might be years from now.  Who knows?  The ritual though can be the catalyst for some—even those who thought they didn’t need it.  That’s the beauty of Samhain.  You commune and remember those who’ve left this earthly realm.  You celebrate them and what they brought to your life.  Then you look at what muck is gumming up your engine and you light that crap on fire.  Let. It. Go.

           

Lord, we say farewell to you this night.

            Rest within the Goddess’s cauldron until we reunite.

            For my loved ones: bless them and keep them,

            May their memories be my life’s light.

Blessed Samhain, everyone.

Splitting Hairs

My husband and I both have papers from Universal Ministries stating that by paying a small fee and filling out an online application, we now may perform any number of ceremonies like marriages or even baptisms.  This certificate, which also comes in pocket-size, is mostly symbolic and in no way means that either of us is particularly religious in any way.  The certificate’s powers allow us to perform weddings and we have; he has 2 (almost 3) and I have 1…not that I’m keeping score.  Anyway, we’ve both stood in front of a gathering of people and pronounced a couple married.  Recently though, someone told me that we “officiate,” we don’t actually marry people.  It took some prodding, but it seems the distinction this individual was trying to make is that because my husband and I are not ministers for any church this person accepts, we therefore only officiate legal unions like a justice of the peace.  Seems like splitting hairs to me.  Verb choice really?  That’s the distinction? A ceremony presided over by a JoP is somehow not really marrying the couple, it’s just officiating?  Apparently to be a marriage for this person, it must be blessed by church official like a priest since she indeed declares that she will be a Catholic until she dies.  I’m not sure I buy her argument that the ceremonies my husband I have performed are in any way less valid or true marriages.  Have you ever really investigated the history of marriage?  No?  Let me enlighten you on what I have found.

Guidelines about marriage began as a way to make sure humans kept having babies and passed property down bloodlines. Way back when we humans lived mostly nomadic and tribal style lives, marriage was really open and I do mean open to interpretation.  Not only did men actually go and essentially kidnap women for sex, in some tribes the males could be with whatever woman appealed to them and then the children from these unions belonged to the whole tribe.  Fascinating, yet primitive by our Western sensibilities I suppose.  Personally, being thwacked over the head and led away for mating, childbearing, and no real monogamous connection does not appeal.  I am a product of that whole feminism movement after all and I enjoy being able to rebuff or prosecute such advances.  Speaking of feminism, ancient Romans seemed to have the first equal status for males and females in marriage.  Interestingly, when women and men held equal rank in marriage, the birth rates declined!  The declining birth rate led Augustus to impose mandatory marriage laws.  So much for freedom and equality.  As societies moved to more agriculture based societies, the issue of property rights emerged as a concern and males wanted assurance that the kids born of their wives were actually theirs so that the possessions of the father went to his sons.  Enter the age of marriage as a contract. 

From this lovely idea of property rights, humans gained reinforcement to the idea of women as chattel.  Now instead of being open and available to all men, women were property of a man and marriages were often business dealings.  The love we now associate with marriage actually was relegated to the realm of prostitutes, male lovers, or concubines.  Marriage was business so if you wanted monkey business, seek it outside the marriage bed.  Early civilized societies had the practice of prearranged marriages complete with either the male’s family giving the bride’s family money for the woman, or the woman’s family giving the male’s family money and property for taking that pesky female off their hands.  Either way, it was business and the woman was not in control.  Marriage secured property rights for heirs and also for churches through the wills of the deceased family members.  As the churches gained more control over societies, religious influence also reached marriage.  Around the 12^th century marriages added blessings and prayers which then gave way to full on religious involvement in marriage ceremonies.  Despite this, some civilizations insisted on a secular union before a religious one because a religious union was simply not enough. Essentially, as humans progressed through the ages, the definition of marriage and how to define it varied considerably and changed based on the needs of the society.  This idea of government sanctioning marriage for legal reasons also helped shape America’s ideas of marriage.

In  Colonial America, because so many of the early European settlers escaped religious persecution elsewhere, colonies opted for civil, legal marriage rather than religious based ceremonies.  They looked to the idea of usus for their marriages which stated that living together for a year as husband and wife provided enough of a proof for marriage needed to be legally accepted.  If the wife stayed away three nights, the marriage was voided.  This idea should sound familiar since its modern version morphed into common law marriage.  Only Virginia Colony held on to religious over civil, but this too gave way eventually.  With a brief knowledge of the ancient origins through early American views on marriage, it appears that marriage frequently falls under the heading of legal contract, and that religious involvement was discretionary.  Therefore, I felt obligated to investigate specifically Catholic views on marriage to completely understand the point of distinction mentioned earlier in this article. 

In my digging for information I made rather startling discoveries regarding the Catholic Church’s involvement in marriage.  For example, in 866 Pope Nicholas I held that even if a marriage was consummated, if either party objected to the marriage, the marriage was then void.  Hmmm, veh-wee een-teresting.  By this belief, even if the two had sex, either the man or the woman could still oppose the union regardless of whether or not it was arranged by the families.  In the 13^th century the church took control of marriage as a ceremony, but still held that marriage “sprang from partners and neither the parents, nor priest, nor government could affect validity.”  Holy smoke!  If a marriage springs from the individuals’ consent, then the priest really was there as set dressing even though the church saw marriage as a sacrament.  By 1563, the sacrament of marriage appears in canonical law, but throughout the 1500’s, marriages without witnesses or priests were still common. Furthermore, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, marriage is a “legitimate union between husband and wife” with the term legitimate defined as being sanctioned by some kind of law: natural, evangelical, or legal.  Again, marriage through the ages changes even in the sometimes unyielding Catholic Church.  By including legal in the definition of legitimate, even a civil marriage between gay and lesbian partners would be recognized as a marriage.  The priest’s blessing supposedly elevates the marriage’s union as an offering of the marriage in “importance and sacredness,” but a marriage that satisfies “legitimate union” still qualifies as marriage.  Furthermore, “most people, including most Roman Catholics do not realize that the ministers of the sacrament are the spouses themselves.”  WHAT?  So the Roman Catholic Church still follows the age old tradition that simply declaring yourself married is enough?  Just so you know, the author of this article, Scott P. Richert, is a Catholic who along with his wife attends a traditional Latin mass and he holds an advanced degree from Catholic University of America.  By this teaching, the two people who want to get married, are married as long as they say vows to one another that say they intend to contract a marriage with one another.  That’s it.  Priest or “officiant” not needed unless you want that added bonus.  By this argument, my Catholic ‘til death person is right about us not performing marriages; but neither do priests.  They too are just “officiants.”  Even with that nugget of revelation, marriages that are legally recognized like the ones my husband and I perform=valid even under Catholic scrutiny. 

Therefore the only barrier to defining the unions and the act of performing those unions that my husband and I perform as marriage is the individual in question.  That is her issue to resolve if she indeed views our marriage rites as less than marriage.  For me and my husband, those ceremonies and the ones yet to come are marriages.  Period.  For that “Catholic until the day I die,” she can have her marriage.  She can call it marriage in whatever fashion she defines it along with her husband.  Those other couples though-- asked us to be a part of one of the most important days of their lives.  Clearly, those couples’ marriages satisfy any definition of marriage out there…and I refuse to diminish the status of those marriages or our role in celebrating them to anything less than the beautiful portrayal of love and devotion that they are.   

Regret--what is "gret" and why should I ever re- it?

Do you ever play your least greatest hits back over and over again in your head?  You sit there in quiet contemplation about something else when all of a sudden you start remembering all that cringe-worthy shit you've ever done for absolutely no good reason other than to make yourself feel completely awful and ashamed?  My hindsight's been kicking my ass for about a week and I have no idea why other than a recent lupus flare kept me immobile with very little to do other than dig around in my head and blow dust off some stuff I should have set out for the garbage man to haul away.

Combine immobility with my natural introversion and viola!  We have weirdness in my gray matter.  Being an introvert makes me intensely prone to reflective thinking.  Usually this is productive for me, but not lately.  It's like I go rooting around in my noggin for an idea and WHAMMO!  This memory of something horrendous I did years ago jumps out at me like the Boogie Man.  What the hell is that about?  I've done a lot of work to move past those things and to live in the present because there's absolutely nothing I can do about the past and all that other healthy wellness advice that I truly do believe in. Yet, there it is.  Some random and not so complimentary or unsavory thing I did years ago looms.  It threatens to expose me like a blackmailer looking for some hush money.

What. The. Hell.

Then two things happened: 1) I got a massage from a friend and 2) I went to coffee with another friend.

Let me tell you about my friend the massage therapist. She's amazing.  Really.  I don't go out and chat and all that stuff with her that often because as I said--introvert.  OK, borderline recluse.  Anyway, she's got these liquid hazel brown eyes, naturally buoyant hair I would love to have, a killer dragonfly tattoo and we've had some fairly in-depth philosophical discussions that have helped me get out of ruts in the past. We visited back and forth a bit, got caught up and she basically massaged the crap out of my sore and achy muscles so that I promptly took a nap when I got home.  It was bliss.  I probably don't tell her enough how wonderful she is.  She really is fantastic.  She plays flute and she's always been drop dead talented.  I've never told her that I admire that about her, but I do.  I could never do that.  Her ability to play flute solo or with an ensemble is something you should experience some time.  As spaced out as I was after that massage, I started thinking about how awesome she is and couldn't help but smile.

Now for my coffee bud.  We've had an interestingly complicated friendship to say the least.  Way too much history to go into here.  She's a lot younger than me, but we also have a lot in common like a passion for the written word.  One thing I've always enjoyed about her is her zeal for life.  An opportunity presents itself and she goes for it.  She will pick herself up and move across country, which is something I have never done.  She's always struck me as someone who wants to experience everything this world has to offer and if it sucks, she's gonna go find something else to entertain her and the ugliness can just kiss her ass.  She's also dealt with way too much heartbreak and grief for someone her age.  Here she is in her prime and emotionally she's treading water.  At one point we were discussing her current relationship and she asked what I would do in that situation.  Before I had a chance to respond, she said, "You'd never be in this situation," to which I kind of scoffed.  After all the self-imposed regret montages I had endured the past week, I found that remark rather ironic.  My friend is in pain.  I know not how to help her other than to be here if she needs it.  I wish I knew exactly what to say to her to help her heal, but I don't.  I just know that the world is more interesting with her in it and I hope she knows that.

There you have it.  Two of the people I am blessed with knowing and calling friends.  These two women whether they know it or not brought me out of my head and back into life.  In the past, I've done rituals to cleanse and help me move on etc.  However, I am so fortunate to have these phenomenal women in my life and appreciating them for all their wondrous being worked better than a charm.  All of my friends are so important to me and yet I don't know that I tell them enough.  You see it doesn't matter who I was in the past.  I did some shit.  I learned from it.  I don't do that shit anymore because I figured out it wasn't who I was or who I wanted to be.  Despite that shit, these two people willingly seek me out for coffee or a movie.  For that, I am profoundly thankful.

And my Greatest Hits Regret Edition can suck it.

Lughnasadh

Post Lughnasadh Greetings to you all!

Per my usual, I spent this year's Lughnasadh up at the lake.  It was delightful as the full moon coincided with the sabbat.  Each of the 3 nights of the full moon I excitedly watched as the moon crept over the mountain before bathing the campground and lake in glorious and brilliant light.  I didn't even need the flashlight I took down to the lakeside the first night because the moon was that bright!  Breathtaking and wondrous.

As for the sabbat itself, I woke that morning and did the typical camping morning routine of hygiene and coffee before sitting down to ponder the deeper meanings of Lughnasadh.  If you don't know, this happens to be the first harvest of the sabbats and it is in essence the Wiccan thanksgiving.  You can read more about the Celtic God Lugh who lends his name to the sabbat here or on the festival itself at this entry.

I spent some time talking with my husband about what the sabbat means and reflecting on what we felt was going well this past year.  Some time after that I composed a list of what I believed improved over the last year and what still needs to get moving.  This is one of the suggested methods to reflect on your own personal harvest.  Pleasantly I noted that my list of "Needs More Time" was far shorter than my "Wow This Is Awesome."

• I am extremely grateful that for the first time in several years my husband got to camp with me the whole week of our vacation.  For the last few years, he's either been there for a few nights or not at all. 
• I am also grateful for my husband having found a job that does not require him to travel for weeks or months at a time.
• This summer I received an offer for a part time online tutoring job which along with my regular job and my husband's job means that we will be free of some major debt by this time next year.  Whew!  The end is near.
• I received a bailout of my very own this year as well which will absolve me of a portion of my student loan debt. This makes it that much easier to pay off that previously mentioned debt.
• I am reading even more than I used to if that is possible. I am reading a large variety of books as well, which is what I had hoped for this year.  For example, I read Stranger in a Strange Land while camping.  I can cross that off my "Classics to be Read" list.
• I am more fit than I have been in a long time and I have maintained my weight loss and lifestyle changes that helped me get back into single digit clothing.  You should see my arms.  Seriously--I cannot believe how fantastic they look.  They are strong and lovely and still feminine.  
• We have the most amazing garden that is providing an abundance of vegetables for the winter.  I wanted to devote more time to the garden and it has paid off in spades!
• I continue to be more honest and open with my parents and other people about myself.  I am a major introvert and a very private person, but I set a goal to be more open and to answer as honestly as possible any questions about my beliefs.  So far, so good.
• My husband and I remain close physically, emotionally, and philosophically.  I cannot tell you how much I value the fact that even when no one else seems to get it, he does.  
• Bellydance remains my creative and performance outlet.  I have been at it for about 5 years now and it still amazes me to watch my fellow dancers develop their abilities.  I love the camaraderie and the opportunities I have had because of this artistic expression.  I set out to go to a national bellydance festival this year and viola!  I will be doing that in about a month.  

Not a bad harvest eh?  Therefore, I was moved to write my own Lughnasadh words of celebration.  

Radiant Sun,

Through your warmth our garden thrives.

As your time each day wanes, 

We thank you for your bounty

And wish you safe journey

Toward winter's embrace.

Gentle Moon, 

Remind us of life's cycle.

As your lover weakens,

We thank you for these lessons.

Content in your presence,

And joyful harvest.

Grant us your wisdom with every bite,

Sow within us nature's rhythm with every sip,

I am thankful.