Dreams Begin to Take Form

As I have written previously on several ocassions, in Druidry the tide between Samhain and Yule is a time of chaos, a time where we allow ourselves to drift and dream, floating in the cauldron, letting go of the need for handles to hold on to. Out of this dreaming come ideas that begin to move from raw potentiality into real possibility. And for me, this season has yielded two possibilities that I will hold as seeds to be planted for the new year’s cycle of growth.

The first idea is the creation of a pagan dance ritual that is a deep dive into the intuitive, a rite of shared vision. I have observed in the pagan communities a sense of fierce independence, which I think a core strength in our traditions. But often this independence comes at the expense of our shared interdependence. I think as a community, we are going to need to become closer, more reliant on each other as global economic recession/depression really begins to take off. Life is going to have to become more local. And as people of the Earth, pagans can lead in this process of learning to live in cooperation and harmony with the land, building resilience within our local communities.

Bringing this communal consciousness to the pagan community will involve deep ritual. Within the Native American traditions there are numerous rites that are all about holding the community together. People gather to seek vision, not for themselves, but for the tribe. Sundance, Naraya, the Long House and Vision Quest are just a few rituals that are about healing the tribe and not just for the benefit of the individual’s spirital journey. I see no counterpart to these within the pagan community. So I am working with others to create one. It will be a pagan rite through and through, honoring the Spirits of Place and held within our own cultural heritage. It will be local.

The second dream that has bubbled up from the cauldron is that of Druid College. I am working with another druid priest to create a new organization that is completely geared toward the training of priests (within Druidry, “priests” refers to both men and women). Again, this has everything to do with community. While many organizations offer courses on Druidry, they are geared towards presenting Druidry to the individual, to be used to their own ends. We are crafting a place where people can learn to become priests that are in service to the land, the people and the gods – priests of Nature. Rather than individuals who are “followers” of Druidry, we want to teach and support people to become “carriers” of the tradition. And to that end, we will be offering training for people who want to step up and be of service. A lot of work ahead to craft such a college, but this is so needed. The need for priests is so great and the number of people stepping forward are so few. For those willing, we want to share what has been giving to us by our teachers, passing on the knowledge to the next generation, completing the cycle of inspiration that is at the heart of Druidry.

So the common thread between these ideas is the concept of community. At a recent lecture by Nicole Foss of The Automatic Earth blog, she made the comment that in the face of the coming global depression, we need to transform virtual communities into real communities. This is happening beautifully within the Permaculture community. And I thought about the state of our pagan community. Other than Beltane on the Beach here in Maine at Popham Beach, we pretty much exist as a “virtual” community. Yes, we have real groups, groves, tribes and covens that gather, but the interconnection and sharing between them is very limited, most of it taking place on the internet. So how do we make the tribe stronger, more connected, more resilient?

My answer is to simply start with reaching out and making connections. This pagan dance for vision will happen here in Maine. It will be the counterpart to Beltane on the Beach, the inward journey to Beltane’s outward celebration. The Druid College will be a place to reach for potential and bring those learning into service for the whole community.

I am sure we can have a stronger more resilient tribe of pagans that care for and support each other. And if we put our collective heads and hearts together, we can show the world a way to live on the Earth with honor and consciousness, while minimizing the harm we do as we express our humanity. This dream needs to be realized.

Thoughts? Would love to hear feedback on these projects as well as your own dreams moving into possibility for the new year ahead.

Blessings of new growth found in the depth of the darkness,
Snowhawke /|\

A Samhain Poem

One of my grovemates expressed that she felt she had nothing really to release this Samhain. She has had a great year, riding on smooth currents, finding purpose, love and ecstasy.

Sometime we manage to find a current in life that doesn’t feel like baggage. These currents are precious as they can fuel us through the difficult times. So we feel we have nothing really to let go of. But still there is work to do.

As my musical hero, Bruce Cockburn, wrote in his song Feet Fall on the Road, “Though chains be of gold, they are chains all the same”. A lot of wisdom in that phrase. Even though we may not be carrying any emotional baggage, no intellectual burden, no new health issues that restrict us, there is no way getting around the fact that the past year is behind us. Those days and nights have been spent and we will never get them back, no matter how fond our memories. The past year of our life, is done. And this is always the case as the moments pass by.

In Druidry, we are in a constant process of reaching for wakefulness. So even though the year may have been blissful, it is gone, now an illusion living only in memory. So here at Samhain, as with all of our spiritual activities, we reach for wakefulness, acknowledging the year behind us, finding our feet under us again, here now, in this moment, in this place. And fully present, we check in with our loved ones, our tribe, our coven, our grove, and our own soul. Honoring the tides of Nature and the Spirits of Place, we ready ourselves for the long darkness ahead. And through these sacred rites, we find inspiration.

So on this Samhain, in honor of the inspiration I’ve received, I offer you this poem.

A Samhain Poem

Snowstorm greets the darkness
Precious sunlight slips away from river valley
Our breaths are visible, crystalline in the muted twilight
Sacred river offers up our lesson for this rite

All of our days past are like waters run to the ocean
The river remains
But our days and nights,
Our thoughts and dreams,
Our successes and failures
Our love and our ecstasy
All carried away on currents into nothingness

The Art of Not Knowing

Every year we experience the Samhain tide – the time between Samhain and Yule. It is a time where the cycle of growth has ended and the new cycle of the year has yet to begin. Natural death in Nature comes with the first killing frost. Our harvest is in or it is lost. The temperature grows colder as the winds come down from the North. The days continue to shorten, falling ever more into darkness until Yule when the light begins to return and the hope of a new growing season can be held. Such is the nature of this season here in my beloved Maine.

This time between the end of the growth cycle and the rebirth of the sun at Yule is a time of deep unknowing and chaos. It is time to indulge in dreams, to dive into Ceridwen’s mythological cauldron, dreaming without limits. As the darkness grows, we instinctively go inward, exploring our inner landscape. It is a gift Nature gives us every year.

The leaves have fallen off the trees, sloughing off the dead flesh of last years growth. They aren’t needed. Their purpose served, they return to the source of Mother Earth, their creativity coming apart as they become leaf mould.

There is a profound lesson in this – that of letting go of the past that no longer applies to our life today. Following the wheel of the year, the Craft offers us an opportunity to look in the mirror and see ourselves in the present, to stop long enough from our toils to take an assessment of our life. As we face the long winter, the harvest in, Samhain is the perfect time to do so.

During the Samhain tide, I take the time to review my life and rid myself of everything in my home that isn’t beautiful, useful or valuable. In Maine we will be spending the next six months inside for the most part and I don’t want to spend it surrounded with useless clutter that has no place in my life anymore.

Nature has shown us what natural death is, the dead vines in the garden once so vibrant with green now lie brown, dried and crackled, decaying into source that will feed next year’s garden. Our death will come too at some point, our cycle of growth coming to an end. While I don’t know when this will be, I want to be prepared. So at Samhain, I take the time to review the Death and Dying package that I put together with my wife and another pagan friend. In this package I put all my personal information regarding my eventual death. I put in personal contact information, financial contact info, obituary details, burial plot location, my Advanced Directive, funeral wishes and on and on. The idea being that should I pass suddenly, those left behind won’t be scrambling trying find all this information at the worst of times.

One part of this package involves an activity which I think is a beautiful gift to those who will survive us. I write farewell letters to those people important in my life. Imagine having a letter left to you from the person you loved most after they passed suddenly. Writing these letters is a deep look inward at what we value most. Perhaps we keep the letters or perhaps we burn them in next Samhain’s fire and write new ones, honoring the ever-changing nature of relationship. The act itself is highly freeing and I can not recommend this mediation enough. It is a powerful act to own one’s death and to prepare for it. The final step is one we make alone. I want to be prepared to take that step when the time comes, and to do so without worry that I’ve left a mess for those I leave behind.

This cleaning out, letting go and preparing for Death is extremely freeing. We don’t know what life holds for us in the future but freeing ourselves to face the present as consciously as possible is a powerful step toward approaching the future with courage and enthusiasm. We become unchained and the not knowing becomes an enticement instead of a fear. Samhain offers us a powerful yearly opportunity to reach for more freedom. Although death may be all around us, assessment, acceptance and release can free us like leaves swirling in the wind taking journeys of flight they couldn’t dream possible while attached to the tree.

So embrace the darkness. Open your arms to the cycle of death that comes every autumn. And most of all use your freedom to dream in endless potentiality. Time will move potentiality towards possibility and then into opportunity. But now is not the season for deep plans. It is a time to just dive deeper than ever into the cauldron, dreaming your life into being. Free yourself to dive without the chains of the past tied to your soul, holding you in the realm of the known. The unknown path is always the safer one.

Blessings of Samhain,
Release, freedom and ecstasy,
Snowhawke /|\

The Importance of Myth

Tomorrow I head to the local prison to celebrate Samhain with the prisoners who established the Wiccan Group. I always look forward to visiting the prison as I encounter men who really are working to walk the talk of their religious ideals. Part of tomorrow’s celebration will be the sharing of pomegranate juice and fruit, and the retelling of the tale of Persephone and her journey into darkness, into the underworld.

Each time I hear an ancient myth, I think about the people who created it. What was it they were trying to express and who were they trying to express it to? What importance did these myths play in the tribe?

I bring this up because I see our modern American society in the midst of a crisis of imagination.

Where are the myths to help people understand the processes of life changes that we experience today? Our myth in America is that of “Going West”. Well that journey is known now. Hop on a plane and go to that mythological West in a few hours. Drive around in your car out West and you can see it in great detail. But seeing isn’t experiencing. Just seeing, allows us to remain distant and not engage.

We also have the “Rugged Individual” or “Pioneer” myth, individually scrapping a living off the land while fighting off the savage Indians. This myth has little place anymore. Land can’t be claimed in places that allow us to live near our tribe. And we all know the “Savage Indians” to be tribes of indigenous human beings who suffered genocide at the hands of our European ancestors. While homesteading may offer a way to walk with this myth, getting the land is nearly impossible without dedicating much of our life to being a cog in the socio-economic system that is Capitalism, American style.

The prominent religious myth in this land is that of Christianity. It is the stories of people in the Middle East who wandered in the desert seeking for the promise land. The teachings of their main prophet instructed people to look past the suffering they experience in daily life and reach for eternity in paradise. That is a difficult myth to bring into modern America where we have little to no sense of a tribe. We move as individuals based on finding a job. We spend so little time in a location, we have no sense of being a steward and the land suffers with our passing. The land is view as a resource and money is the reason we wander, uprooting when a better job opportunity comes along. And finding comfort in life after death is a hard sell to a society whose main mode of being is one of immediate gratification through consumerism.

So our major myths don’t easily fit into the daily experience of people in 21st Century America.

And myth is the way we have been able to act out the rituals that help us find our place within the tribe and to embrace the process of change in life. So today, we as a culture stand without myth and that is a dangerous place to stand.

Pagans today look to ancient myths from all over the globe, ones that still hold the power to help us walk the path of life without getting lost. We recognize these aren’t historical stories, “true” stories, but rather they are stories that contain great truths. So when we as pagans revisit, honor, and act out the myths of Persephone, Taliesin, the Oak King a Holly King, or possibly even Christ fasting in the desert, we consciously engage in a world that allows us to embrace change; find our place within the tribe; find that much needed sense of connection; and to walk in a sacred manner. And where there is no myth to relate to the processes of the world, we create new ones (as has always been the case).

Myths give us a sense of wonder that is sadly lacking in the world. TV is filled with the supernatural. And I always wonder why we need the “supernatural” when the true natural world is so extraordinary. This speaks of disconnection. We can’t find sufficient time and presence to see the ordinary is utterly extraordinary.

Myth offers us a sense of connection. The characters in the myth are part of the story, not just inactive bystanders. The characters play their part and know their place in the world (or discover it along the way). Myth being played out year after year, life after life, offers a sense of continuity that is vital for learning to live well in a place.

Myth reminds us of what it is to walk a sacred path. Today’s journeys are known, limited and lacking any sense of adventure: school, work, marriage, and retirement. While each of these may offer learning and discovery, they don’t look very appetizing when stated as a noun: school, work, marriage, retirement. Compare those to journeying to the underworld to break the chains of death – or in a modern myth, journey over the Misty Mountains with a pack, a sword and a magic ring, seeking to destroy the very embodiment of evil. Now that is a purpose filled life!

Myth offers us a way to ritually acknowledge the transitions we as humans all experience. Myths contain our rites of passage. This is an essential element of myth. Without rites of passage, we can live in perpetual childhood or be surrounded by people who don’t acknowledge our transition (boys that never become men or helicopter parents that can’t let go).

Finally, myth offers us a doorway into the intuitive, reminds us there is a whole other aspect to our being other than the frontal lobe decisions of paying the electric bill and remembering to get the car inspected. Myth nourishes our soul with dreams. And dreams are vital. They give us the ability to process the endless amounts of input our mind receives each day. While the conscious mind can process only a few thousand bits of information each second, we take in millions. And we have to process and integrate that information for our own wellbeing.

So here we are heading to Samhain where the growth cycle of the year has ended and the days still continue to get shorter and colder. A new cycle hasn’t started with the return of the sun at Yule. We drift in a place of chaos. So I encourage you all to dive into Ceridwen’s cauldron and just dream. And don’t dream small. Dream without limitation. Find a new myth or an old myth, but none-the-less find a myth and celebrate your life journey.

Many blessings,
Snowhawke /|

Harvest Poem

Sometimes our harvests are not what we expected them to be. Sometimes the nature of our harvest is simply too complex to spell out. Expression is important though and the results of our efforts can perhaps best be expressed through poetry. So I offer up this harvest poem for you all.

Blessings of change,
Life’s possibilities unfolding,
Snowhawke /|\

Transitions

Stars wheel overhead, my back to the ground
warm comfort of Mother Earth on a chilly September evening
My fire is transforming old wood
From worn out porch, to pure energy
From broken step, to glowing coals
Salamanders dancing

I see the North star and I think of space travel
Trillions of stars, parallel universes, endless possible lives based on choice
It is a fantasy in which I allow myself to wander into

What is it I am hoping to find?
A different life?
Another lover?
A different dynamic of living?
Another culture?
Another time frame?

Who knows.

Perpetual dissatisfaction isn’t the reason
At the core, I simply dream

Leaves are turning
The harvest equinox arrives this week
My life is boxed up as I prepare to move
I worked hard to finish stacking firewood for the new owner
I patched the roof
I boxed my books

In the distance I hear geese honking
Night flight as they race the shortening days
I lift my mead horn to the heavens
I lift my horn to the trees
Hail to the Spirits of this Place
Hail to the gods of transformation
Hail to the stars as I sit lost,
in the middle of a Universe of my own creation

Altars Alter

I was looking through old photos of altars that my grove created as part of our rituals. I was struck by their variety and beauty. It never fails that when we co-create our ritual space, the altars always hum with beauty. They are also perfectly appropriate and effective.

But what is the point? Are we crafting altars for beauty’s sake? No, it goes much deeper than just making something beautiful.

When crafting sacred space we begin with the altar. It is a tool that begins the process of stopping the external distraction and moving towards local engagement. It is the first step in taking the time to stop and remember what is sacred in our life. It is the beginning of re-establishing our connection to that which we hold as sacred.

So how do we craft these altars?

The first step is determining where the altar should be. In ritual space that we have used many times, it may be tradition for the altar to be a certain spot. But often my grove works in places we haven’t been before. We are out in Nature. Determining the location for the altar has everything to do with listening to the Spirits of Place. We begin with crafting relationship to the environment and the spirits there. And when I say spirits, I don’t mean anything “supernatural”. I mean everything we can perceive, the trees, rocks, wind, streams, rivers, animals, flowers, sedges, moss, Nature. And Nature does include the unseen – the spirit guardians of the land, the fey, nature spirits and the ancestors of the land. We start with listening. Listening tells us if we our presence is accepted by the land. Listening tells us what the boundaries are and gives us an idea of how we move in this place. And by move, I mean how we act, our motions and our attitude, our way of being.

Once we find our place within the place, we begin with the focal point of the altar. We use our collective hearts and minds to place items in a way that express our connection with that which is holy. It isn’t complicated, although some altars can be quite elaborate. We build in physical reality a place of sanctity.

Our altars are always appropriate for the place and the time of year. Since we are in Nature, the items on the altar will naturally reflect the essence of the season. For this time of year, the fallen leaves from the hurricane, wild blueberries and blackberries, abandoned bird nest, an apple, whatever is around that calls to us. We only use these items temporarily and we ask permission to use them at all. Many times I have reached for a stone or feather or mushroom, only to have my nemeton find an edge, and I listen to that soul, leaving them in place, I move on. I don’t impose my will. I don’t rip wild flowers from the ground, killing them for my own purpose.

We often bring items from our own human life that help us remember the sacred. Photos, obituaries, chalices, drawings, poems, censors, plates of prepared food, sickles and other tools, items that have meaning for us.

And why do we gather and bring these things? Why build the altar at all? The mere act of crafting an altar, alters our state of mind. We move for the mundane to the sacred is an instant. Building the altar tells us, this isn’t social time anymore. This is our time to do our spiritual work, to connect to the land, the people and the gods, to find our place in the flow of Nature so our actions aren’t counter to the currents and tides of Mother Earth. Altars remind us we are walking in the holy land, that we are always wrapped in the divine nature of deity. We aren’t outside that which is sacred. They remind us of our commitment to live ethically and to walk gently on the Earth. They remind us that our lives aren’t separate, but rather entwined. We aren’t alone. We are a tribe, a circle. And when we are a circle, it is an altar big enough for us to stand on. We are strong.

Blessings of sanctity,
Snowhawke /|\

Redefining Prayer

I just got of the phone with a dear friend and mentor of mine in California. We had a great conversation and got on the topic of prayer. From our sharing, something shifted for me regarding the nature of prayer and how to speak about it.

Most people have the idea of prayer as talking to deity where they beseech for forgiveness, petition for help, ask for wisdom and clarity, or to give thanks. It is also commonly an act of submission, humbling oneself before God, offering up one’s life as a tool for God to use.

Pagans may pray to many different deities. Yet prayer within the pagan community if frequently very similar in nature to the monotheistic religions. It is again one of petition or submission.

I think of prayer very differently. It is the counterpart to meditation. My Druidry teacher, Bobcat, once told me, “Meditation is listening, prayer is speaking back”. This implies relationship, a circular motion, listening first and then speaking. Talking with my friend in California, he put words to this that made a light go on. He said, “prayer is engagement”.

Thinking of prayer as engagement instead of words, is very helpful in learning to communicate with that which isn’t verbal. I don’t hear words when I work with the wind, the forest, the moon, the ocean or with the fire which keeps me warm all winter. There is honorable exchange though and deep relationship, a sacred one and a religious one.

Prayer isn’t limited to our relationship to deity.

The form prayer takes is limitless. Prayer can be a gesture. It can be a word or many words. It can be song. It can be a dance, a conscious exhale, the leaving of a piece of food on a log, the wiping of sweat from the brow, it can be orgasm. Where these things go from the mundane to the sacred, from simple communication to prayer is in the level of engagement. It is engagement where we open our soul to share true intimacy. When we are in this state, all returned communication becomes prayer. Engaged, fully present, co-creating.

Many blessings,
Snowhawke /|\

Awen – Life Energy in Motion

I had a recent email exchange with someone and I wrote about the nature of Awen. I think what I wrote stands up and I thought to share it with you.  Here it is with a few edits :>)

Awen is the life energy and it flows between two souls when they open to each other. Awen is that which flows between the poet and the muse, between the rain and wet stones, the sunlight and the leaves, between the mother and her child, between the wood and the fire and the hearth, between the dancer and the music. When we feel this flow of energy, we are filled with inspiration and it fuels our creativity. And our creativity isn’t just art or poetry. It is how we live our lives and how we express ourselves. It is our way of being in the world. And through this expression, we complete a cycle.

We gift our creativity to the world, hopefully inspiring others, fueling their creativity. It is in this way we change the world for the better. This seeking and sharing of inspiration is the very essence of Druidry. Creativity, fueled by inspiration that comes from soul deep relationship based on honor and consciousness – now that is a spiritual path I want to follow!

Blessings of soul touching soul,
Snowhawke /|\

Wordless Ritual

My grove recently celebrated Alban Hefin (the summer solstice). This year we didn’t do any formal ritual. It was an exercise in simplicity. And I have to say it was as an effective a ritual as any.

One grovemate lives in a cottage on a farm here in Southern Maine. So we gathered at her place and walked down the farm road to back acres of rolling hills of hay. The lane was sided by a cornucopia of wildflowers, grasses, sedges, shrubs, bushes and trees. The air was filled with the hum of bees, flies, frogs and bird song – breezes rattled the leaves, coaxing song from the trees. It reminded me very much of England. The scent in the air was extraordinary, mixing mud, flowers and clover, stirring memories of summers long past.

We wandered through the mown fields atop a small hill. Simply sitting in a circle on the grass, with no altar or props, we took in the energy of the place, effortlessly rooting in the rich living soil, finding presence. Beautiful clouds drifted by stimulating our imaginations. It was like being a child again, seeing a whole other world and story in the endlessly morphing shapes flying through the sky. Finding myself surrounded by such beauty, sharing it with the people dear to me, the Awen flowed filling my soul with life enhancing inspiration.

The only word that really captures the moments we shared is “sanctity”. This simple sharing in Nature was totally sanctified. There was no need to call to the directions as all directions were present and speaking to us. There was no need to cast a circle as why would I want to delineate a boundary between myself and that which I was seeking, deep connection to Nature. This was a moment to simply be and open up, to let the edges dissipate and fall to nothing. There were no words to be spoken. It was a time to sit and listen and to allow the blessings of the moment to wash through us, opening to the beauty and abundance of summer allowing those gods to inspire, to make a shift from “doing” to “being”.

I walked away filled with gratitude and inspiration, feeling a soul deep connection to the land, my tribe and the gods. And isn’t that what this spiritual path is all about? I would that you all be blessed by such Grace.

Midsummer blessings,
Snowhawke /|\

Instant Ritual

Still in California…

Today I ventured out at lunch to find something to eat. I settled on noodles from a restaurant next to the hotel I am staying at. After I got my food and stepped out of the restaurant, my attention turned to two little birds in the outside dining area I was passing through. They looked very similar but were obviously different species. Both were small dark brown birds of a similar shape. One had dark eyes and the other white. The second was obviously a type of grackle that we don’t have on the East coast and the other a type of sparrow perhaps.

I processed all of this in an instant. My attention drawn from the world of humanity to the greater Nature all around me. In a few steps I went from work mode to ritual space.

Ritual is the art of stopping and taking a break from the mundane to remember the sacred, to reestablish that all important connection with the Earth and the Divine, the connection that feeds us and gives focus and purpose to our lives.

Learning to shift our consciousness to a ritual mindset is a big part of Druidry. With dedicated practice, we can develop the ability to shift in a breath, in an instant, from the mundane frontal lobe visual world we all live in, into a rich multi-dimensional spiritual one. And it is in this state of mind where we are sufficiently present enough to craft relationships deep enough to open us up to the flow of Awen, divine inspiration.

I mention this because being out in Silicon Valley has made me feel terrible, surrounded by environmental degradation and societal dysfunction has been very trying to say the least. Everyone seems to be focused on image. It is a car culture, a cellphone culture and an appearance culture. People worship money here. And you all know my thoughts about “worship”.

Anyway, amidst this manufactured world everyone lives in, Nature is still trying to express herself. The little birds I saw for a few seconds taught me much.

The birds landed on the top of the back of one of the chairs in the eating area. One of the men sitting at the table immediately, without thought, swiped at them to get them to fly off. It was alarming to me that anyone could be so disconnected to behave in such a manner. He didn’t see anything of value in front of him. He didn’t see the sheer magnificence and beauty of the birds. They fly for gods sake!!

Because I was in ritual space, I knew what the birds were saying to me when they caught my eye.

“Your tribe killed the land. We need food and you won’t even share the crumbs!”

My response, sent out through my nemeton, through my soul to them was simple, “I hear you and acknowledge your plight. Yes, you are right. And I am sorry. I am trying to heal the land. You have my word on that. You are beautiful and I honor your soul and your tribe.”

I write this as an example of what it is to find inspiration in the moment, when we need it. It is a conscious act. Even in the midst of desecration, disconnection, and destruction, we can find inspiration. It isn’t about just being in the beautiful places, reveling in those exquisite moments where we are just in awe of the sheer beauty of Nature. It is about opening our soul for deep relationship. And we can do this is the darkest of places, in moments of sheer horror. In fact, sometimes that is where it is need most. Those birds heard my acknowledgement and I theirs. And both our worlds have changed. From that brief exchange shared soul to soul, Awen flowed. And out of that inspiration is this blog post.

Remember to share the with the Spirits of Place, all those souls that live around you. We have chopped up Nature and disrupted the flow of the plants and animals trying to express their soul truth. We have stressed their tribes. The least we can do is acknowledge them and share the abundance we are experiencing at their expense as they try to live among us. Remember, it is long past where they can get away from us. I am not saying “feed the bears”. I am saying give back to Nature what is due Nature. And listen, really listen. It will change everything.

Blessings of acknowledgment, generosity and sharing,
Snowhawke /|\