We Need Each Other Now

Preparing for tonight's salon, I can't help but notice that most of the poems moving me right now are deep and dark.  I've been wandering around an area of the underworld that I've been calling the doldrums.  Well, it is the dark of the year, Mercury is still retrograde, and the times are pretty tough, and like everyone else, I have my own peculiar set of trials.

We were surprised by how quickly the salon RSVPs poured in.  It's unusual for us to have a waiting list.  Of course, there are all the last minute cancellations, and the forecasted storm will have an impact on the turnout, but the feeling we've gotten is that people are truly hungry now for community and for things that will nourish the soul.  I'm hoping for that kind of evening.

A little poem came to me this week that I plan to share tonight, along with a small ritual of passing around and lighting a candle.  For anyone who can't be with us, here it is:

We need each other now.

In truth, we always have.

But as things disintegrate,

as chaos and disorder reign,

we become like bones,

scattered and

stripped clean of all

that is inessential,

Let’s reassemble ourselves,

the way Isis did with Osiris,

or La Loba with her wolf bones.

Let’s find a new configuration,

this part mine, that part yours –

Perhaps something original

will emerge, or

something ancient.

Let’s light a candle now, friends,

so we can see how

to begin.

Yesterday, while getting dressed after my swim at the YMCA, I noticed an older (yeah, older than me) African-American woman, the only other woman in that area of the locker room.  She looked at me and wished me a happy new year.  Of course, I wished her the same, and said, "Let's hope it's a happy new year." She responded, "We have to make it one."

So, here we go.  Let's make it one.