Welcome,
Traveller,
And here we are,
At the beginning.
Everything has to start somewhere,
So welcome to wherever you are.
As the tides turn and the seasons change,
Mist and mud,
Sand and stone,
Beckoning fires bright and clear,
Smouldering to nothing,
Air,
Earth,
Fire and water,
Everything that was once forged from the stars,
A reminder of where we came from and where we might be going,
And we do need reminding,
We seem to have lost our way.
And now we meet winter,
Our cold,
Watery season,
Where fire is our balancing element,
With its warmth,
Comfort and crackles of promise and adventure.
For now,
Let the rain and thunder be a reminder that we can endure the strongest storms,
Allowing them to clear you of anything that no longer serves you,
Resting and breathing.
And as we ride across the uneven terrain,
Unsure of where we might be heading,
A hazy warmth glides across the snowy grasslands,
A crack in the ice reveals a beam of light,
Setting into motion the winds of change,
Icy shards fall and crash to the ground,
The walls begin to crumble,
Revealing brighter skies,
Brushed with red,
Amber and diamond,
Spring,
With its air awake,
Lifts spirits and sprites with excitement and madness.
And earth will be our balancing force,
Let's not get carried away by busy bees,
Fast flowing rivers and idle chatter,
Arriving in your own time dear traveller,
Like a flower,
Long before it has burst into colour,
With a quiet dignity.
On these griffin winds,
We fly gracefully into summer,
Where it seems to swoop in from nowhere,
With the dust of spring laid bare,
Forgotten,
Settled,
And summer sings in the spirit of technicolour through our waking hours,
While bees swarm around the same tree,
Insisting that there is not enough space for everyone,
Meanwhile,
Swans float gracefully along the river,
With their heads held high,
They know nothing of the plight of bees,
They are too busy being admired by onlookers.
In this fiery season our balancing force shall be water,
Or lemonade if you prefer,
Depending on how you live your life,
Either way,
This is our gentle reminder to find our level,
Remember our humility and know that we can turn to mist,
Invisible to those fast flowing rivers that entice us in,
Or we can be a powerful wave,
Greeting the shore with an entrance nobody will forget.
And through the whispers of the evening,
Sepia tones spread across the horizon,
Filling eyes with awe and nostalgia,
This moment is perfect,
But something is missing,
What is it that you yearn for that is deeper than water and dust?
Feeling the winds of change on our faces,
We remain steady,
Poised and strong,
With open hearts we send shivers,
Rippled rhythms to remind our bodies that life is essentially good,
Perhaps even better than that,
And we must smile as often as we can,
Our bodies really do need reminding.
Floating on high winds,
Looking for adventure,
Heavy with sunlight,
We feel the air in between our fingers,
It rolls over us as we soar,
The ground below us cools,
As summer hands over its fiery wake to autumn,
The colours deepen and darken into a deep blue with starry cloak and happy moon.
And now,
As we near the end of our journey,
Allowing everything to be just as it is,
As here beneath the blue abyss,
In between and amongst the twilight yards,
We wander above the curious layers of the deep low,
Thousands of miles off centre,
We courageously lean in,
This is the place we grow,
With mud and magic,
We find contentment and ease,
We lighten our load and know our purpose deeply,
We soften,
We let go,
No longer trying to emerge as the hero,
But as presence.
