Cycles and Circles

Life and death.  Birthdays and funerals.  The rain and overcast skies added to my reflective mood this week, especially yesterday.  As a pagan friend told me, "cycles and circles."  I've always emphasized the pagan interest in natural cycles, the circle of life, and death and birth again.  Yeah.  It's been a lot recently.  My uncle.  My local friend.  My hospice patient.  The first anniversaries of my uncle's and cousin's deaths.  Not to mention starving polar bears, the poverty in Haiti (see the article in the NYTimes), Roy Moore (even if he didn't get elected), #45, the tax bill, the bombing in Times Square, the fifth-anniversary of Newtown.  I'm reflective, low-key, and, yeah, somewhat down; it's not terrible or paralyzing or clinical, only blue.

Except at the same time, with the lows, I'm having some great highs:  lovely birthday lunch at Bloodroot with my favorite grilled cheese, tofu and cabbage salad, and yummy brandied fruit with ice cream (with lots of pineapple pieces and orange peel); kindness from my hospice patients' family at the funeral; an owl made by Sis, a great tangled dragon made by Bud, a book on historic costumes from Mama, a book on a cat who does hospice rounds from Gommie; pizza for dinner followed by chocolate cake made by Sis; lots of texts and posts from friends and family; great photos of Sis with "her" pony, Bud at kung fu, and the Snowy Owl; finishing another crocheted blanket.  And then today, at hospice, I was playing "Greensleeves" on the piano and a woman came in. She said that was her favorite song--and her mom's favorite song--and her mom had just died.  She couldn't believe she heard the song playing, like a miracle or a blessing sent by her mom, she said.  It was so touching and uplifting.

It's all about the light in the darkness, as we approach the longest night of the year.  No wonder Jews are celebrating Hannukkah now--the miracle of the light--and pagans will observe Solstice; even Jesus is the proverbial light in the darkness.  (Though, I am well aware of the problem of equating darkness with "bad" especially with the resurgence of so much public racism.)

Circle and cycles.