The Night of Solstice and the gift of Spice Cake

 



I woke near 3:00 am on Solstice having had the most wonderful dream. I stumbled upon a bakery no larger than a closet. Inside an old woman dressed in flaxen cloth in tones of all brown (earth or the rich spices of winter?) appeared with a spice cake on a tall cake stand. “You must take this” she repeated, it is spice and will bring luck. I wasn’t hesitant in the lease and felt so blessed to be given such a confection. Without hesitation I left the shop, I actually backed out with the cake on the high stand and did not turn around until I was on the street. I watched her smiling face and was filled with gratitude.
A gift…the first I have received on this entire journey!
I have been fixated on spice cake since that night and did a bit of research. It appears the custom of eating spice cake at Christmas is a rather common English tradition. Some cakes are filled with dried fruits and spices, while others are as simple as the addition of ale, ginger and cloves.
It is said that Yule cake should be made a day or so before the holiday and eaten on Christmas Eve. The cake should be baked round, about the size of a dinner plate, and should be three inches thick. Cheese and ale, or other spirits, usually accompany the cake. The rural housewife makes crosses on the cheese with a sharp knife, and, as is the case with plum pudding cakes, it is considered unlucky to cut either cake or cheese before Christmas Eve.
After searching for recipes I found one that was supposedly Colonial in nature. This spice cake or Ginger cake came to Virginia from England at the time George III was struggling to hold on to the colonies. How perfect, given I live not too far from Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and my grandfather arrived in this country from Bolton England. (A gift from the ancestors?)
Sweet dreams to you all, my cake shall be served Christmas Eve, as is the tradition. My deepest thanks to the Lady in brown for beckoning me. Deep Peace everyone.

No. 9

I'm a believer! There is no such thing as a coincidence.
Today is 9:9 and right on time. Here's why.
The last of the cardinal numbers, the 9 is the most worldly and sophisticated of all numbers. The 9 has some similarities with the 6. However, whereas the 6 as a symbol of motherly (or fatherly) love, giving its love and care to friends, family and the immediate community, the 9 offers it to the world at large; the 9, more than any other number, has global consciousness. Looking at the shape of the symbol is, as always, quite telling. The 9 is like the 6 upside down, a symbol of her offering sympathy and compassion to everyone; a reservoir of giving with a generous downward spout. (From www.Numerology.com)

Today, Voila! A message arrived. 

I haven't been "given" a Lurlene card in awhile, and I've missed  Miss Universe whispering, or at times screaming into my subconscious.  

I understand she has been busy, just look at the trauma the world is experiencing right now.  These are challenging times and that is without Mother Nature adding her unquestionable power to the mix. But add them she did and except for those with the blackest hearts, we are turning our angst into acts of compassion.  We are focusing on that what matters in this world, what is global and how do we help.  While I could take this note to another political place I shall resist.  

So take every opportunity you find yourself in and be a 9!

Love is good and good is magical, trust me, I've seen it transform things.  9:9 
(PS:  don't you find that exclamation points look a bit like wands?, I knew I liked them for a reason)

The Slow Life

After I’ve been away from home a bit, I like to take my time sinking back into it’s rhythm.  I try not to dash about too much, lest I destroy the natural peace that’s waiting.

While I never turn on the radio or the television, I do tend to crank up the air-conditioning and turn on the ceiling fans; then I sit, to hear what I can hear. 

I look to see what needs putting back in place and what might have “moved” while I was gone.  Things like that happen in this house.  But that’s another story. 

This morning I was up early.  For my sanity, I had discontinued the morning newspaper so my routine was already in flux.   I was standing in the dining room, not quite sure what to do with myself when I heard the chirp.  It was the cardinal who spies on me through the large dining room window and chirps for his breakfast.   Their sweet whistles are often one of the first sounds of the morning.

Both male and female Cardinals sing. The song is a loud string of clear two-parted whistles, often speeding up and ending in a slow trill. Males in particular may sing throughout the year, though the peak of singing is in spring and early summer.  Today it is all about the chirp.  The one you’ll hear most commonly is a loud, sharp chip. Most often they make this call when warning off intruders to their territory, when predators are near, as females approach their nests, and by both sexes as they carry food to the nest.  Around the Little House, they make it as soon as they see my shock of white hair. 

Happy for the reminder, I scooped a bowl of black oil sun flower seeds and headed out the back door.  That’s when I felt it, when I caught a breeze.

On a good day, I catch an easterly breeze that cools the long side of the house and makes you forget its July.  The morning sun isn’t high enough to fill the shadows yet and the channel created by the fence and the house makes for a perfect wind tunnel.    

How had I forgotten about this, has it been that long since I was out here.  When did I let newspapers and devices crowd out this time?  Honestly, I think it has been over six years since I sat “down on the side.”  Coffee in hand I sit and look at my world from a different point of view. 

Fragrances mingle; there is that of rain soaked moss between the bricks of the patio and lilies blooming in the yard.  A single smell can call up long-forgotten memories and powerful emotional responses in an instant.  This sweet and loamy mix transports me to my grandmother’s home and the ground beneath the tree swing in the back.  I am just about to journey there when a sudden glimpse of a dancing rainbow catches my eye. 

I looked about trying to locate the source when I recall hanging prisms from the tree limb and the trellis just outside of my kitchen window.  Sure enough there they were, neglected and a bit dirty from their long winter’s exposure, yet they still danced and cast their inner light about, a beautiful reminder of resilience. 

Living the slow life is good. 

Truth Matters

 

You know what I'm learnin' that I've known for as long as I can remember...words can do more harm than knives, firearms, bulldozers, glass shards and whatever else you might use to terrorize folk.  

I got cuts that have healed and the scars to prove it, but I've also got open wounds where words pierced my very soul.  Seems to me right now, we're in a war with words, vague innuendoes hurled like cherry bombs on the 4th of July. You know they outlawed Cherry Bombs and M-80's, but folks still find'um and hurl'um to scare the witts out of you. 

Vague-vāɡ/,adjective:

1.      vague; of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning.

indistinct, indefinite, indeterminate, unclear, ill-defined;

unclear, unsettled, indefinite, indeterminate, unconfirmed, speculative, sketchy

2.        1.  thinking or communicating in an unfocused or imprecise way.

      synonyms:   imprecise, rough, approximate, inexact, incomplete, nonspecific, generalized, ambiguous,      equivocal, hazy, woolly

2.  cloaked facts