Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice ~ What seeds will you be planting on the shortest day of the year?

The long nights of winter ~ when all life sleeps beneath a wintry night blanket ~ precious seeds cradled within the earth… sleeping …. waiting for the sun to return.

Sipping a cup of  earl grey, watching geese fly overhead and thinking about the ebb and flow we call life. I’ve been enjoying this holiday season on a deeper level …  letting gratitude and hope flow over and through me like a river.

I find myself giving more attention and focus to things that are really important and making deeper connections with mother earth. The best gifts of this season are family and community. A season to forgive and mostly to love each other and turn the wheel once more.

Mosaic mandala of reflected light ~ pulling me deeper into to the circle of life.

I live my life
in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist (1875-1926)

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

Sweet Memories

During the holiday season I enjoy pulling out Christmas decorations and puttering around deciding which ornaments to put on the tree. Stacks of boxes filled with all kinds of treasures tucked safely away waiting ~  angels, fairies, story dolls, tinsel, golden bells, red apples and homemade felt doves. Over the years I have received ornaments from family and friends and I cherish the sweet memories and joy they awaken in my heart as I unwrap each precious one and hang it on the tree.

Yesterday evening we decorated our home and balcony for the holidays. I made fudge brownies and steaming hot chocolate to keep us warm as we hung lights outside in the rain. It was really chilly outside and we were bundled up like Eskimos trying to wrap lights around the railing.  Laughing ~ talking ~ drinking chocolate and enjoying the peacefulness of home.

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!” ~ Charles Dickens

Here is one of my favorite songs by Loreena McKennitt ~ hauntingly beautiful.

Loreena McKennitt – Ancient Pines

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

Wintry Thoughts & Musings

It is a quiet Saturday afternoon as I sit before my window staring out at the cold grey skies watching the rain fall. I take great comfort in being tucked away from the madness that ensues during the pre-Christmas sale days.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my husband’s family ~ laughing ~ talking ~ sharing our stories. ~ Simply wonderful!

Every year during the Holidays, I become a child again, seeing wonder and magic in each and everything. I especially love the slant of winter light falling through the windows, the smell of woodsmoke on a cold night and cuddling with someone I love.

Meanwhile our dining room table  has pearls, glass beads, gemstones piled up as the winter muse prompts me to create new necklaces.

I found some beautiful porcelain goddesses created by a ceramic artist several years ago and purchased the last four pendants he had left. They have been in storage for years . . .  lying there waiting …. waiting for me to bring them out into the light of day.

I strung one of the beautiful goddess pendants with silver and white freshwater pearls, faceted quartz bricolette teardrops, moonstone beads, white mother of pearl beads, stunning faceted clear quartz beads, sterling silver spacers and a sterling silver clasp.

The Winter Goddess necklace will be listed in my new Online Store in December.

Visions of a wintry landscape ~ The Winter Goddess weaves her magic into our lives as we turn inward. She is draped in a cloak of sparking snow and ice ~ tenderly watching over the dormant seeds sleeping beneath the frozen land.  Waiting ~ dreaming. . .

Sweet memories of winter ~ Ice-sickles hanging from bare tree limbs sparkling like diamonds beneath a full moon. The sound of cold snow crunching beneath my boots while carrying Christmas dinner up the mountain because the car couldn’t make it up the frozen road to our home and the wild crazy snow rides down the mountain on a make shift snow sleigh.

Loreena McKennitt – In The Bleak Midwinter

A Winter Poem

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the dis-attiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
~ William Carlos Williams

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

Wintry Cold Day

The days have begun to get colder and colder and I find myself embracing this time of wintry quietude. I love the changing of the seasons especially winter with it’s pearl grey skies and bare tree branches. Most of all I love curling up under a mound of blankets with a mug of hot chocolate to watch the stars come out and dream of faraway places.

As I sit here and write this post the rain has begun to gently fall on the naked earth below my window. The day grows dark and dusky outside and it is time for me to light the candles, brew some tea and listen to the rain.

Embracing this time of quiet & reflection.

A secret place where I can wish and dream

Have a lovely weekend. x0

Before I go here is something to cheer you on this dark, cold Friday night.

Sting ~ If  On A Winter’s Night

“It snowed and snowed, the whole world over,
Snow swept the world from end to end.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.”
~  Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi

Enchanted Puzzlewood

Follow me and walk the path of Puzzlewood ~ a path that will lead you straight into the pages of Middle Earth ~ a place of magic and mystery.

A truly enchanted forest where ancient trees, secret caves and mysterious rock formations seem to whisper their memories and secrets on the wind.

To learn more about Puzzlewood located  in the Forest Dean click here

As Mr Dahl once said…
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

When was the last time you walked in an enchanted forest?

Robert Louis Stevenson ~ “It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit”

“Everyday Goddessing  is about sharing magical techniques and sacred wisdom with other beautiful Goddess women. I believe that within every woman there is a goddess, a wise woman, beautiful, creative, powerful, with a deep soul, and that everything we need and are looking for is already inside  each of us.” – Rose Arizmendi