So we're sitting here watching "That's Entertainment" on TCM. Is there a better way to spend a New Year's Eve than lost in 80-year-old celluloid? When I was a kid, New Year's Eve brought us the first of a genre that's quite familiar now--film "marathons." My favorites were Marx Brothers' films or Fred Astaire/ Ginger Rogers musical extravaganzas. Old movies and New Year's Eve are synonymous to me.
As 2013 passes into the record books, I hardly know how to quantify it. It hasn't been a bad year. But it hasn't been a good year, either. It's mostly been a year of...transition? The rest after the cyclone, or the calm before the storm? It has been an opportunity to just "be." Which has been fine, and probably direly necessary. But I think I've had my fill of just "being"....I'd like to "do" something--before I get too old to enjoy it.
During our trip to Klamath in January, I became enchanted with owls--a bird I never dreamed I'd see in the wild. We encountered so many there on the Northern California refuge, in the short days of mid-winter. Those encounters seemed to have set the tone for my entire year. I've been nearly as surrounded by owls as ever I was back in the quintessentially owl-y seventies. I'd like to believe that the Universe's desire to speak to me through Owl caused this owlish ripple in the fabric of American pop culture.
I'm not entirely certain that I have been successful at discerning Owl's message for me so far. I learned today that Owl represents wisdom, clairvoyance, the ability to "see in the dark"--to discern things that are hidden from most people. I can't really see how this relates to how my life played out in 2013...but I have a feeling that it's going to have more meaning in the near future.
As for the coming year, I think I received my New Year's message from the Almighty this afternoon in my back yard:
A pair of birds appeared, as far away as I could see in the eastern sky. I went and stood in the middle of the yard, away from the shadow of the house, to get a better view. I thought they might be eagles, but they were too far away for my failing eyes to tell for sure. The birds flew straight in my direction, circled away, circled back, while I stood there like an idiot, urging, "No, no, don't go away! This way! Over here so I can see what you are!" They fell in line and flew right over my head, softly calling so I would know exactly what they were.
Ravens. The Universe sent me ravens.
Magic. Rebirth. Renewal.
Let it be!
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