Another blog post about moons and love ...

 For Christmas, my sweetie lassoed the moon. Just like George Bailey.

But because Ben did it, it's even more magical and sweet and I was so overwhelmed to come to bed on Christmas evening to a moon in my room!  It's one of those remote-controlled ones that you hang on the wall and you hit the remote and the moon goes into its phases, or you can set it to a particular phase and it glows a friendly light for 30 minutes before shutting down.  So it's part night light, part learning tool (we're in waxing gibbous phase right now), and all wonderful. 



What's especially sweet about Ben gifting me with a moon is because, well, we still have neighbors next door who insist on leaving their garage lights on all night, so I have to close the blinds or else get blinded every time I getup to use the bathroom.  So, I don't have the luxury (yes, it's a luxury these days to actually be able to have our window blinds OPEN) to look outside my window and see the moon.  At least now, I have a glowing moon-like orb right on my wall, above the closet.  It makes things a bit easier that way and I don't go to sleep hating the folks next door.  Hate is not something I want to take with me into the new year (as you can tell by reading some recent posts).

And that is a natural transition to the Full Moon that comes tomorrow.  It's a Cancer-Capricorn moon and it's been given the nickname "The Love Moon"; Cancer is all about emotion and love and nurturing and Capricorn is about balance, so we're asked to balance emotion about relationships with a sense of stability.  Tomorrow is the perfect time to take stock of the loving, familial feelings we have when we spend time with like-minded people.  To take a close look at our love relationships and see how we deeply connect, not just on a physical level, but emotionally and spiritually.  We're urged  to go quietly within when we meditate on the strands of love that weave together our lives with others, to lend them a deep sense of value and give thanks for them.

What's very interesting is that 2012 began with a Cancer-Capricorn moon and it's ending with one as well.  It's as if the cosmos had it all worked out from the get-go: 2012 was a time to learn and grow from all the seismic shifting, learning how to balance all those disparate energies and, ultimately, owing our emergence from the roller coasters of the year to the one true, pure thing we can always count on: love.




 

Choose Love.

I was driving in the north suburbs on Thursday after a rather satisfying voice-over session, en route to the Chicago Botanical Garden for a long walk through the trees, when suddenly I remembered something rather vexing.  I hadn't thought of it in years, but suddenly, the flood of memories sparked a tidal wave of emotion, causing me to enter into prayerful contemplation once I did reach my walking destination.  You see, while driving through Highland Park, IL, I recalled (seemingly out of nowhere) that nearby, many years ago, a disturbed woman (whose name I've decided to not repeat, lest give dark energies more of a toehold) opened fire on elementary school children, killing several innocents.


Yesterday morning, while getting ready for a busy day of working out, visiting Dad, and beginning a steady stream of Christmas-making activities, I was met with the news of the killings in Newtown, CT.  A disturbed man opened fire on elementry school children, killing several innocents.  The similarities between the two events were chilling.  Did I somehow have a precognitive hit while driving through the northern Chicago suburbs?  Was I tapping into a rivlet of mass consciousness already rippling with sadness from the Oregon shooting of the day before?

After careful reflection, this is what I believe:

2012 is the end of the world.  Truly.  But we have the choice to choose what world is ending.  Is it a world of safety and love and security and people helping people that must end?  Or, can we put an end to suffering, to senseless murder, to a society who's growing in carelessness and a lack of caring for life?

2012 is a tipping point.  Anyone with eyes in their head or a functioning brain in their cranium can see it.  When I saw President Obama during his press conference yesterday about the shootings, when he became overwhelmed with grief, unable to continue speaking for several moments, something in me shifted.  We have a leader who may, just may, be able to begin turning more of us toward compassion and care, rather than conflict and a sense of entitlement.  Our country - and, indeed, the world -- is at a crisis point where we simply cannot afford the luxury of complacency anymore.

If we view the shootings in Newtown as just another symptom of unsafe, ineffective gun laws, lack of sufficient mental health care, or just another cog in the wheel of hate and fear that's running rampant through the world -- and leave it at that --  we are allowing darkness to preside.

If we look at this tragedy for even a moment and become desensitized by what we see, darkness has won.

Allow the waxing of light to win.  Pray for peace.  Call your congresspeople and demand stricter gun laws, better mental health care.  Write to our Presdeint and tell him that, in that moment of humaness, of frailty and realness that he displayed, you saw him in his full capacity as a leader and you wish for him to continue to be transparent about his feelings on this matter, affecting real change on gun policy in this country.

Pray for the Love to prevail, for God and goodness to win.  For the end of the dark world and the triumph of the light.  Because that is the only answer.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdbkkWx--0

 

Monday is Tarot Day once again! Looking forward to SO much!!

I was just playing today with my new Victorian Romantic deck from Baba Studio (the second edition with even more breathtaking imagery!) and thought about the three of wands card, and Advent, and looking forward to something miraculous.

I'll write about the tumultuous year of 2012 later this month; right now,let's focus upon Advent, the time of preparation for moving forward, of looking ahead, of all miracles that are possible.  

The three of wands usually depicts a man with three staffs and he's looking toward the horizon, ready to go forth and tackle, travel, and trust that the road ahead is true.  In the new version of the Victorian Romantic tarot, this card depicts a man with some sort of horn with a dragon head where the sound comes out.  It's almost as if he's signalling whoever's in his way, "Hey!  Coming through!  Big plans ahead!!!"

And that brought to mind Advent time, one of my most favorite times in the typical Christian calendar year, when we look forward to the birth of the Baby Jesus.  But it's more than that: it's the time we renew those feelings of anticipation of wonder and miracles.  We anxiously await hearing the retelling of the Christmas story (sometimes the one that Linus recites is the best, if you ask me), about the miracles therein.  And I always think, "Hey - if that miracle happened, what kinds of miracles are in store for me?"

They ARE there, just beyond the horizon ... 

December 5, 2012: Disney and Dave

 

While driving between a voice-over and writing and Zazzle time (as in, posting items to my Zazzle store: check 'em out at http://www.zazzle.com/amusementparkfun), I learned that the masterful, enigmatic Dave Brubeck passed away today.  He would've been 92 tomorrow. 

Uncle Walt Disney would've been 111 today.

Both men are alpha and omegas, constants in this world of variables. They've always been a part of the fabric of my world, from my earliest recollections. They'll never leave, they're always here, and they carry on, transmuting somehow, with every absorption of their work.

In honor of them both, here's a Disney/Dave mash-up I have a particular fondness for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnOYtUUX6kU

A curious day needs a bit of magical reflection, I believe.