Winter still lives in the light

[yuuago]

Today I went to the forest to make offerings.



It didn't take as long for me to get there as I thought it would. It's a long walk, but not too bad. Manageable. This is good. It means I might go to this part of the forest more often in the future.

There were still some patches of snow in the most shady areas.

The edges of the forest have been pushed back and cleared, but the parts closest to the stream are untouched. This is good. Well, from a personal/aesthetic standpoint it's good. But it also means that there are wild roses absolutely everywhere. There's just no way to go in there without getting prickled repeatedly and often. But that's all right.

It's really pretty down in there, even though there isn't any greenery. There are some grassy parts along the banks, and that was convenient. Sometimes it's hard to find a flat place.

I went down in there once, a long time ago. Or it might have been deeper into the forest. But I was in there once, and I wasn't supposed to be there. And the stream was frozen over, but it wasn't enough to hold my weight, and my feet went through it. And I saw a wolf there.

I'm not really sure where this was. It's hard to be sure. It was winter at the time, and everything looked different from how it looks right now. And all of the deer paths look different now, because the parts where you enter the forest have been cleared. So nothing looks the way it did almost twenty years ago.

Anyway. I went into the forest. And I went to the stream. And I lit candles and incense, and made offerings to Winter and to the dead. And I stayed there for a while, and read some Hauge, because I brought a volume of his poetry along. And the sun was bright, but the breezes were like wind over snow. And that was all right.

Maybe I will do this more often.