Bluebirds are so famous they have given their name to the bluebird of happiness. The robin has been associated with the same signs of cheerfulness and joy. Seeing a bluebird or robin, you should immediately make a wish: it must be something unselfish, and not dependent on anyone else. As the bird flies off, set your wish ascending. Wish hard for steadily increasing happiness and release from strains. Whether a bluebird or a robin, if you see the bird again with a few days in exactly the same place, your wish will certainly be granted.
May I act with compassion, remembering the irreplaceable value of the threads of human connection. May I maintain a spirit of curiosity, generosity, and creativity. May I extend a hand when needed and retreat when necessary. May I exercise wise discernment. May I remember to step outside under a wide sky. May I sweep my arms up and open and then bring them down, palms to the earth, feeling the steady thrum of life weaving the whole. Placing one hand on my heart and one on my belly, may I be inspired, nourished, and restored by this matching pulse within. May I allow myself to pause and witness the tender terrain of uncertainty and choose to inhabit it fully, allowing not knowing, maybe, and if to drift around me on the winds of change, while I take another step on solid ground.
Goddess of the untamed shore smooth my edges into gratitude, tumble me into letting go, teach me what it means to let my longings ebb and flow. Roll me until my to-do list becomes rubble and my bindings become loosened by the touch of salt and time. Carve me back to my most essential self, erode my need to know until it is replaced by space around my heart to grow. Sweep over me and leave me expansive and free, help me to remember to wait for nothing while somehow also being as patient as the moon. Encourage me to chart my own course and steer my own craft, trusting the transformations wrought by truth and trust and tide.
May I be inspired. May I be grateful. May I walk in ease and devotion.
As I have noted several times here on this blog, this June I fell and hurt my ankle, which confined me to flat surfaces and my back deck instead of the long walks on the road and through the woods that I so enjoy and find so nourishing of my creativity and spirituality. In my time on the deck, I started to ponder devotion and building devotional practices and from those contemplations the Goddess Devotional prayerbook was born. My family jokes that I fell down and when I got back up, I’d written a book. This was a surprise project for me this year, not something I expected to create, and I’m really pleased with it.
Free pdf version and a collection of additional resources is available here.
"The winter solstice happens in nature around us. But it also happens inside of us, in our souls. It can happen inside of us is summer or winter, spring or fall. In the dark place of our soul, we carry secret wishes, pains, frustrations, loneliness, fears, regrets, worries. Darkness is not something to be afraid of. Sometimes we go to the dark place of our soul, where we can find safety and comfort. In the dark place in our soul we can find rest and rejuvenation. In the dark place of our soul we can find balance. And when we have rested, and been comforted, and restored, we can return from the dark place in our soul to the world of light and new possibilities."
Erin Lale
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