First new Offering song in awhile

Ostara Blessing - Spring Even-night 2013

Spring Even-night has come again

Herald of warmth and new green growth

Ostara has walked o’er the Land

Ever welcome for her blessing

Happy the Day! Happy the Folk!

Kin, Kith and Friends, sitting at board

Winter is o’er, Weal has topped Woe

Time to give thanks and look ahead

-Burden-

On the morrow, first farming day

Earth will be turned, stones will be picked

Fields to be made ready for seed

Looking ahead to Harvest Gain

-Burden-

Skies will be watched for signs of frost

To help assure that crops will grow

Too early will hurt young seedlings

Warmth for the earth will ward their strength

-Burden-

All of this will, prepare the way

For sowing seed in rich, dark earth

Plots are laid out, furrows stretch long

Hope for the days to come ahead

-Burden-

Under the sun, many toil

To wrest the wealth that all will need

When Even-night comes once again

Winter’s Herald, at Harvest time

-Burden-

Happy the Day! Happy the Folk!

Kin, Kith and Friends, sitting at board

Winter is o’er, Weal has topped Woe

Time to give thanks and look ahead

-Burden-

-Burden-

(Originally from my Piparskeggr FB timeline, yesterday)

Been reading a few things, thinking a bit..

I'm not a hugely accomplished man in many ways, and am so in others. That's the sign I've lived a life.

From time to time folks will ask if there is something I do not know about, something I have not done...

I wonder to myself, can their horizons be so limited that the bits and pieces of my life look like a wide frontier of experience?

I live my life. I like to learn things, sometimes doing something just enough to see how the skill works, lots of that water past the mill. I like to listen to new voices, new songs, see things I have never before…although I can be quite a hermit at times.

Everyday has to be a learning time. Truly, we can’t help it.

Midgard is overflowing with interesting people, places, creatures, things and occurrences, how can you NOT learn something every day.

On top of this, if you are speaking with someone, how can you avoid showing them something new from your store of knowledge?

The Gods quickened Man with Life.
The Gods set within us a Will to Strive.
The Gods unleashed our Minds to Think.
The Gods expect us to use their Gifts, for good or ill, as we choose.

I think, with the 5th anniversary of my pacemaker implant approaching, I feel the edge of the Norns’ shears being sharpened. I believe that they do watch every thread and see when the time has come to cut it and begin with a new one in the weave. I also feel that my thread will continue for quite some time longer.

It has worn thin at times, come near to breaking, but the core strands hold fast.

I also think that the uprooting Anita and I have done with our lives has been a “great disturbance in the Force.”

We lived in northern Illinois for the longest period of years since we left our parents’ hearths when we wed.

We had roots, which were sundered.
We had friends, who we will now see only once in a great while.
We had a house, which became a home.
We had a life, which became comfortable, but was a cocoon.

Anita and I have been together over 35 years. We have had our ordeals, but life has not been a dreadfully hard row to hoe.

We persevere, for that is
...how our parents showed us.
…how our grandparents showed us.
…how our aunts and uncles showed us.

Steadfast
Stand Fast
Hold Fast
Faith-full
Staunch
Sure
True…

Watchwords.

Everyone falters, Gods and Man know I do, oh so well.

However long it takes, it is if you try and rise after faltering that shows you Worthy of Life, Will and Mind.

I may not end up as Worthy at the end of my run, but I will surely live as if I will be.

A few pence upon the start of my 57th year.