Ballast. "to give stability to (a ship) by putting a heavy substance in its bilge."
Halloween approaches, a time when many believe the veil between the world of the living and world of the spirit is thinnest; our connect with Ancestors is easier if we wish it so. We are in the Between -- slowly, yet persistently clearing and preparing our Vardo for Two life -- to move from the woods onto the prairie. There is much to do and nothing more to do until its time. Pete and I are recovering from the experience with the Ford 250, looking for the ballast. Life with Environmental Illness is living the Church of What's Happening Now, every day! Pagan at its base, this Church of What's Happening Now sees the holy in everything. This ship of ours is always readjusting its ballast internally and externally. Keeping a blog, like this one, is a ship's log that documents the amazing journey, otherwise who would believe it and I might forget. To keep us upright, sometimes I need to step outside myself to pay a different sort of attention.
A couple years ago a story sprinkled itself to the forest floor, I noticed the scent of it; a benign and powerful scent that could be a proper dose of medicine and enchantment. I loved the characters and their story making themselves present. Some of them were familiar, others were new. Together those characters and I wrote a Halloween medicine story Pine Needle Dancers.
Here's Giveaway #1
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| This sweet and sacred dancer made from the needles of pine is common magic, tied with three colors of thread, and a button from my motley collection. I added one of my favorite shells as a shield when we cleaned up yesterday. We're letting go, and even the smallest of treasures needs to find new loves. This is the last of my Pine Needle Dancers made for the story, with an added bit of glamour for transitions...I'd love for her to go to someone who will love her, someone who loves TO DANCE!!! From tip to toe this Pine Needle Dancer is 7 inches tall. THE PINE NEEDLE DANCER HAS BEEN CLAIMED!!! She'll be off to Minneapolis to live with our dear friend "Peggy the Cheesehead". |
Giveaway #2 Is a (one only) c.d. recording (41 minutes in length) of Pine Needle Dancers ... a reading I did in 2015. This is an unedited recording with a few flubs and do overs left where they are.
Free shipping (or a hand-to-hand gifting)
on both giveaways.
Pine Needle Dancers can be read in its entirety online here. I hope you go there to meet and greet the wonderful characters, and the messages of magic at a season when harvests and remembrances can make such a difference!!
A sampling of the Halloween story ...
"Trees knew the changing ways that were toppling them. Part of the hardening off of their Heartwood had to do with recognizing the Humans who would have their backs so-to-speak. During this season of damp, this new season of rain and cold, the Pines kept track of those who remembered how to care for their hair, and their gifts.
"Needles. We call them Pine Needles," said Larkin's Gran. Larkin was celebrating her fourth birthday in less than ten moon phases. She was Scorpio, and this was her season. Gran Calypso was Larkin's teacher, her storyteller, her soup maker and mostly her most special friend. There were no other children in this family, no human ones let me just say that. There was Daniel, Larkin's father. He loved to fix things, and spent much of his days doing that. Here and there, Larkin's father helped people who didn't seem to know how to do those things.
There was Celia and Moss. Celianmoss. Larkin always said their names together because they were always together. They lived in the forest, but had their separate house across the orchard with their cats Cobb and Litter. Cobb and Litter never left their house. Larkin visited the cats and the two women across the orchard. Larkin's mother, Imagina died giving birth to her. It was an odd and unexpected death. She had been one of the hale and hearty ones. There's more to that bit of the story embroidered throughout ... we'll let that dangle here for awhile...
Read more here, or be the one who listens to the story by leaving me the message, "I'd love the Pine Needle Dancer c.d."
Happy Harvestime, and Halloween!!
Mokihana and Pete
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