Hello, and long time no see!

I have missed you here at The Way of the River blog. Before I begin here, let me say that if you enjoy reading my writing or following my work, there are (at least) two other ways you can connect with my writing and so keep up with what I’m doing. You are welcome to join the Facebook Community Group for The Way of the River if you use Facebook. We are an active community of seekers, and share bits of wisdom along our way together.

The other way you can receive my writing is to sign up for Reflections, my weekly spiritual boost and contemplation for all of us in The Way of the River. Follow this link to sign up! Each week includes musings on the season of the year, particular virtues or struggles, spiritual concepts, or my take on current events and concerns. I invite you to be welcome among the hundreds of other folks who receive Reflections in their inbox.

In the upcoming year, there will be lots of new stuff around The Way of the River. For example, I invite you to the free Turning the Wheel events coming up, the first of which is January 31, and will celebrate the upcoming holiday of Imbolc, sacred to the goddess Brigid/St. Bridget. Several members of our community will be involved in putting the ritual together in reminding us of the importance of the time when the sun is returning, when we have light, but not so much heat yet. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I called it the Mud Holiday, because February is the season of the thawing and freezing and freezing and thawing and wintry mix, rain, and freezing rain that lead to the ugliness of early spring, and the softening of the ground.

Here in Portland, Oregon, I don’t have a great sense yet of the shifts at Imbolc. So far as I’ve been able to discern, it certainly is a holiday of growing brightness—to a point—and a holiday when the early flowers begin to pop their jackknife leaves above the surface of the earth. We shall see!

In any event, you needn’t have ever attended a church service, a ritual, or a ceremony in your life to be welcome at our little observance. If you have lots of experience with ceremony of any kind, you are welcome. If you just want to learn a bit about the traditions, Wiccan, Unitarian Universalist, and Roman Catholic, in which I have come up, and how they relate to Brigid/Bridget/Imbolc/Groundhog’s Day (I did say I was from Pennsylvania, after all!), please be welcome.

The Imbolc observance will be Wednesday January 31 at 8:30 Eastern/5:30 Pacific.

We will light our own candles of prayer and petition (please bring one), in honor of the eternal flame that burns near the sacred well of Kildare, Brigid’s holy site. We will honor the three faces of Brigid—patroness of smithcraft, the bardic arts, and healing. We will remember our ancestors and descendants, and our own place in the chain of life and history.

Later this week or perhaps next, I shall put up a post here regarding more thoughts on discernment and prayer. I’ll be offering a class late in the summer—28 Days of Discernment—and I’d love for you to be able to come and register for this single month of learning how to use tools of discernment for managing transition, making choices, and using good judgment to get where you need to be. The course will likely include self-study resources, a face-to-face lesson on Zoom with me once a week, and one personal one-on-one lesson at the end of the course. It’s going to include things from methods of prayer to pro-con lists and how best to use them. I’m really looking forward to it.

But for now, Imbolc! Do be in touch and let me know whether you’re able to come and whether you’d like to be part of a ritual team. I’d love to see you!