❄ Snowy Simplicity ❄

The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning; such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles, nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain — not a single
answer has been found —
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.

~Mary Oliver~
excerpted from American Primitive

We welcomed our first snow of the season with play, reading, art making, warm broths, teas and baths.  While slowing down as the snow speaks, we are enjoying one another.  We are grateful for our home and warmth on this Venusian day of the Lover.  Our hearts and prayers go out to all in California whose lives are in disarray.  May all of us find shelter in those whom we love and cherish.

As a gift for your readership and your commitment to self discovery I am offering $111 off of the weekend investment for my Winter Solstice retreat.  For another week, from this Venus day to the next on 12/15 the retreat will be on special just for you.  Use the code RENEWREFILL.  

At the Bend of Ivy we will slow down, honor Yule also known as Winter Solstice, practice Kundalini yoga and meditation, eat nourishing prepared foods and drink warm teas all in sacred sisterhood.  We will have lots of time for deep council and rich ceremony.  And we will dive into the archetype of Inanna and her myth and story.  This will be our time to renew and rebirth. 
 
Snowy blessings,
Ra Ma