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The Day After Groundhog Day

So yesterday, February 2nd was Groundhog Day. Of course just writing at my whim, I wasn't thinking about this yesterday until AFTER I posted my entry on this blog, because I was excited about getting my passport.  But every year on February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil from the small Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney, and Wiarton Willie, from the town of Wiarton in Bruce County, Ontario come out to make their predictions about whether Spring will come early or not this year. Either Spring is “just around the corner”, or there are “six more weeks of winter”. Which is kind of a pointless prediction if you ask me, because where we live Spring NEVER comes until AT LEAST six weeks after February 2nd. That would put us to March 16th. Think St. Patrick’s Day (close enough); is the snow EVER gone by that time?  I think not. The other festival that happens on February 2nd is Imbolg, a Wiccan celebration.  On a multi-cultural calendar I have, I read that it is sometimes called "Imbolc", or "The Feast of the Waxing Light".  The word "Imbolg" comes from an archaic Gaelic expression "in the belly", which signalled the first stirrings of life within the womb of mother earth.  Corn dolls are burned as offerings to the sun to hasten his return.  Other sources describe it as a celebration of the increasing strength of God, given as the first and greatest gift of the Goddess.  "Many Wiccans honour the Goddess at this time as the source of fire, poetry, arts, crafts, agriculture and smith craft.  It is a time for reflection upon the generative power of the gods, from which will come the later material and spiritual harvests." I found this information interesting to read as I'm about to head off for two nights of winter yurt camping, solo.  I've never winter camped before, but I've tent-camped with friends who were staying in a yurt, so I've seen them and know that compared to tent camping, they are luxury units.  And they have heat.  So it seemed like the perfect mini-getaway for me when I was trying to decide where I could go for some much-needed reflective and restorative time away. I had planned originally to leave on Feb. 2nd, and was calling it in my mind Groundhog Day Winter Yurt Getaway, but due to child care arrangements I wasn't actually able to leave until today, Feb. 3rd.  But I am SO excited about this trip.  I have grown to love camping over the years...loved it as a child; hated it as a teenager and young adult; and then grew to love it again once I started taking Ryan every year as soon as he was out of diapers.  So the thought of getting away for just a couple of days to a quiet winter retreat where I could spend some time in nature was a sealed deal as soon as the idea entered my mind. Like the Imbolg celebration, this is a time of renewal and eagerness for the future for me.  After a long and difficult winter, this is a time of new beginnings.  The very early stages of new beginnings, but starting nonetheless.  On December 20th, the eve of the winter solstice, my local newspaper had this very brief writeup on the occasion: "Celebrating the solstice:December is the darkest and, for many of us, the most dismal time of year.  For months, the daylight hours have been perceptibly shrinking.  For weeks, the nights have grown depressingly longer until the most common colours in nature's palette seem to be black, brown and grey.  And the awareness that winter begins on Monday will be enough to make even the stoutest Canadian hearts long for a Caribbean vacation.But Monday is also the winter solstice, the greatest night, the tiniest day in the rolling year.  In an instant on that day that none of us will truly notice, the Earth's axis will begin inclining toward the sun once again.  Winter will have arrived.  But spring will be on the way." I can't think of a more accurate description of how I had been feeling internally through those fall months.  It was most definitely a very dark and difficult time in my life.  But with the turning of the seasons, so has my outlook turned.  Maybe it's been intensified by a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder on top of everything else, but this Fall and Winter have been times of intense change and introspection for me. So now, with Groundhog Day/Imbolg upon us, it's the right time for me to get away, get back in touch with myself, with nature, and with my dreams.  And get ready to head into Spring with a brand-new spring in my step. While I'm away, I won't have internet access so I'll continue to write my daily 'musings, but they won't get posted until I get back to the land of technology.  Happy New Beginnings Day, everyone.

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©2023 by Kelly Wagner

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