Waiting for Imbolc

It’s late morning.  After doing my best to offer hospitality to our guest, I’m finally sitting down for some warm cereal and tea.  Ahhh…  me time!  The tea is made with roughly chopped fresh ginger, local honey, and half a lemon – its juice and rind.  Trying to keep my body healthy and ward off illness, of course.  As I sip the tea and slurp the cereal, I’m reminded of Brighid’s warmth and healing waters.

Although it’s only January, we’ve been experiencing a bit of a heat wave.  The snow we were so delightedly hoarding since the Winter Solstice is all but gone.  On and off again rain quickens the process.  It almost feels like spring, and with Imbolc being the traditional beginning of spring, I find myself seeking signs.

Of course, we will be getting more snow this week (supposedly).  It’s a good thing, and I want more snow.  Our ecosystem needs it, our farmers need it, and Upstate NY generally has snow right up until mid march.  Recent years, the patterns has changed a bit…  Which is worrisome.

It seems a lot of us are waiting for Imbolc.  Those who don’t observe the Celtic high days, or the modern NeoPagan calendar, still seem to be thirsting for spring and it’s many festivals.  People want a rebirth within and without.  I’ve noticed a lot of friends who write are suddenly lamenting the difficulties of being a published author.  They’re turning within to mull it over and seek an answer.  Pregnant friends in the end stages of their third trimester struggle with pain, the medical status quo, and anticipation.  People have started the process of cleaning their homes, myself included.  Fellow gardeners are excitedly perusing the seed catalogs arriving in the mail, day dreaming of sprouting seeds and new, verdant life all around!

This past week, I’ve watched with a mostly passive interest as the NeoPagan community grappled with its identity online.  Oh yes, dear readers – the great Pagan/Polytheistic debate of 2013.  Even I’m going to mention it in a blog post.  I had been writing a longer response with all of my thoughts, many of which are mixed, and then I trashed it.  Self-identity is important.  Group identity is important.  Labels and names have power – they really do.  Everyone has a right to express themselves, to feel they belong to something bigger, and to nitpick linguistics and semantics.  Yet in the end, I’m not sure another blog post on the pile would do any good.  As for myself: I’m a proud polytheist who worships her Gods, walks the Druidic path, and yet finds a home within the NeoPagan community.  Maybe that will change one day, but for now, I am who I am.  You are who you are.  Let’s be friends.

My mind is filled with more personal concerns  – my growing baby, keeping my home clean, whether or not the North Country Druidic Study Group’s application for protogrove status will be approved, exercising, eating right, keeping up with my own spiritual practices.  Think of me what you will!

So I sit here drinking my healing tea and praying that Brighid will bless each of us with the healing we need and that spring will bring new, positive things to us all.  Until then, we must prepare and wait.