blizzard

by

The Life of a Water Dragon, Part 1

  • picture from Pintrest

First of Advent – Second of Advent

This, the 13th year, of The SkrivKringlans Advent Calendar, 2024, I am following a different process. Still writing every day of the 21 days, but publishing on every advent.

Auspiciously enough Dec 1st is on the First of Advent as well as on the date of the New Moon this December. Something I took as a confirmation of this guidance to write differently instead of not writing at all due to the very turbulent circumstances in life at the moment.

The Life of A WaterDragon

Razor-sharp crystals of snow and ice danced around her face. The blizzard was so strong there was literally nothing to be seen, yet her feet felt every step through the cracking snow. Her nose picked up the scent of frozen pine and distant log fires from the valley below, her ears could easily distinguish by the song of the wind through which part of the cliff openings she was walking.

This is where she grew up. Where she had been trained for this part pf her life. Rolling down the mountain slopes in summer, through daisies and clover with all the other kids, sledding down the same faces in winter, even skiing down in teenage years.

She was not like the other kids though. During her first years of walking and talking she would head out the front door during the night, pushing it open with all her tiny weight, almost fall on the porch as the heavy wooden door swayed open, sit down on the rain deer skin at the edge, feet dangling over the small stair steps, looking up at the large star-filled sky. 

Watching her breath turn to mist she would sing. The sound created itself, she felt it stirring in the belly, tingling in the fingers as it worked its way up and out through her throat. She sang to Orion, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, The Seven Sisters, and they all sang back to her.

She felt so infinite and still, so full of the same life she felt in the trees, the moss, the creeks and the rivers.

The dragging of feet on in the hallway could be heard, the creaking of the door handle as it was pushed down, the sigh of dad as he’d just been woken up – again . She turned her head to greet his large green eyes adorned by eyebrows as bushy as the pine trees in spring.

“What are you doing up singing with the dragons again my litte pea?” he asked.

“Dad, they aren’t dragons. They’re fairy spirits dancing in silver and diamond dust”, she giggled as she corrected him. “You know the dragons don’t come out till June”.

Whoooosh! – The sound of the blizzard hitting The Northern Face brought her back to the here and now.

When was the last time she’d ever been this close to the descend down this face of the mountain? It must have been decades, or was it centuries, ago?

Never ever had she looked that deep down in to an abyss, that she knew. Life as she knew it then was over. She had peaked down in to the darkness, almost as velvet as the moonless sky above .The rock in her throat, the clenching in her stomach and the shattered space of her heart making it feel like she was being strangled from within while dangling alone in a universe devoid of colour.

The Northern Face had called her there, all the way to the edge of darkness. The tune that arose from her inside had been anything but a song. It was a shriek of eons of pain roaming the whole mountain side strong enough to create avalanches.

“Feel the ground you walk upon. Be the ground, the sky, the sense of every-thing. Be alive”, a voice from somewhere in the air between her and the edge  had sung.

“Be fully present in each and every moment”, it continued. “The love of Mary, the sacred heart of Jesus”.

There was a swooshing of moving air creating mist around her and a huge winged being landed next to her.

“I am WaterDragon and you just woke me up”.

The light through the blizzard was brighter than the white of the snow. How on earth was that possible? 

A pillar of light, like a great crystal wand, wide at the bottom, gently sloping inwards towards the heights until three smaller faces met like the top of a pyramid what seemed like at least a hundred meters up from where she stood manifested through the glimmering snow crystals.

The song swirling from the peak of the crystal pillar in a spiral downwards where of the chords she had heard back then.  

“The love of Mary. The sacred heart of Jesus”, she heard herself sing out.

“The Light of Christ, pink magenta dancing in crystal clearing”. She recognized the voice. Her. She WaterDragon.

“Where have you been all this time? Where have you been?”

“Inside Your Heart and in the air,
In Space and Time
Yes, everywhere.

In every breath you dear heart of mine.
In the here, there and everywhere.
There is nowhere I have not been,

Always.

In the music, in the song
In the cry of your heart,
In the joy of your dreams.

In, beside, behind, beyond, within, next to, above, below, around
Everywhere.
Always.
Everywhere.

There is nothing you see that I don’t see.
There is nothing you hear that I don’t hear.
There is nothing you feel that I don’t feel.
There is nothing you breathe that I don’t breathe.
There is nothing you are that I am not.

I am right Here.
EverywHere.

Always.”

Cassandra knew She WaterDragon was right. She had felt her all the time, yet she had missed her with her entire heart and soul for so long, so deeply. Under the surface of the misty mind entangled in the worldly She WaterDragon had always been there. Yet Cassandra had tuned her out, somehow she had tuned her out.

“Not important my child, not important”, the dragon gently moved a strand of hair out of the way over Cassandra’s eyes. The wind was still strong though the blizzard had slowed down.

“What are we to do, my Queen ? What are we to do my love?” Cassandra turned her face towards the dragon.

“We are to live my dear, we are to live. Nothing more, nothing less. And we are to share that in every moment we are here, with each and every one, every tree branch, every squirrel , every sunrise, sunset, blizzard, wave, starlight, person, animal, mineral, planet, stardust particle, every seaside, mountainside, avalanche, every headlight staring deer, singing infant, owl, man, woman, child, foul, puppy, seed, plant, every atom and molecule , with everything and everyone that lives and breathes out there. Fully, unapologetically, alive.”

The dragon flew up and landed on the first pine tree she saw. Small pine trees this high up in the mountains.

“Look here. Look around you. What is there to not celebrate? To not let the Light of Christ, the Love of Mary in to? Or to not see them in? And how about Orion? Cassiopeia? Our dear Canis Major and Minor? Atlas? All the others? The Light and The Love are there too, are them too. Heck, we are all Li-Lo born and Li-Lo infused”.

“Li-Lo?” , Cassandra laughed. “Have we created artist names for The Light of Christ and The Love of Mary?”

“Have we?”, She WaterDragon sent the question back. 

Three nights and six days had passed. How that is possible I cannot tell you without getting entangled in splendid detail. So let’s leave that shall we?

Cassandra found herself at the bottom of the mountain. Her home mountain. At the space where the deep waters of the lakes and fjords led in to the vast, vast ocean, in to the depths of where the soul deep diving whales and orca’s danced every new season.

She WaterDragon had motioned her to come join at the edge of the lake, where the huge, blue calcite meteorite served like a crown jewel styled bridge between the mountain side and the fields of green of the lush village of Angelside. 

They sat there, Cassandra watching her breath turn to mist as she tilted her head up towards the stars, She WaterDragon making circles in the water with her long tail to the rhythm of her own song.

“Be fully present in each and every moment”, Cassandra sang. “It has never been any easier than this. Never more difficult than right now. When you stand at the bank of the river, becoming the lake, only to know you are moving in to the sea, of which you have always been, always will be. Being fully present when you know all you can do is disintegrate here under the stars to move forward. To be born. To re-birth.

“Shed my child, shed”, SheDragon’s calm voice. “ Shed and receive. The love of Mary, the sacred heart of Jesus. This December.”

SheDragon continued “these words are just symbols. These pictures are just symbols. Even the connotations are just symbols. The love of Mary, the eternal love of the eternal mother. She, Earth, Space, Womb of the Divine, everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing, Creation, readiness, discipline, sacredness.

The sacred heart of Jesus. It, he, Love so humongous it leaves no one outside of it, yet everyone are inside it, all encompassing, omnipresent guidance from within, powerful alignment from within with without, as above so below, togetherness.”

“Soul birthing life, life birthing soul. The old releasing the new, the new calling in the old, the union of all the refined arts of living, being, loving and worshipping being embraced fully in each and every moment. Present in every moment. That is what the Life of a WaterDragon is about. That is what I am here to bring you back into my precious pearl of loving wisdom. That. And the importance of play.”

  • Cecilia Götherström 2024
by

Elsa’s Song, Dec 8th 2021

Nejla sat with her hands wrapped around a fresh cinnamon scented oat milk cappuccino, in what felt like another dimension.

The Crew – her band name for Tuva, Kriya and Starlight – lay sprawled out and curled up between the crackling open fire place and the front door.

The blizzard had quietened down. Now there were just grey, plump clouds dropping snowflakes in a dancing slow motion.

Ricky sat at the sturdy wooden table across from Nejla. How she and The Crew had ended up this close to Pinehome with the train was beyond her comprehension. 

One moment they had been engulfed by the blizzard. Which was not a bad thing. There were few things she loved more than the cold wind and snow touching her cheeks. 

“Embrace! Embrace! Embrace! Align!” had travelled through her mind. As she said the spell out loud she had felt very powerful from within.

Seconds later , the sound of someone whistleing, followed by The Crew howling in reply. A black labrador appeared as the sun broke through the storm making the snow flurry dissipate.

“Dio!”, Nejla could not believe her eyes. “Dio! Where is Ricky?”

“Here!”, Ricky’s voice reached her before she could even see him approaching on skis. “Welcome to Buffalo Land!” He almost fell forwards as he swung his arms up to greet her with a hug which made the skis move backwards. “Soulsister, soulsister. So good to see you.”

“So, what really brought you here this time, sister dear?” Ricky reached for the sugar. He liked his coffee sweet to the point of it being sugar with a bit of coffee.

“The Adventurer. Storulven. Spells.” Nejla shrugged her shoulders. “Not entirely sure, but it’s definitely something to do with those three. And maybe more. I felt, and feel, instructed to take one step at a time, not envisioning anything behind those steps, just listening. I know this was big one. I had some sort of inner knowing telling me I had to go north, in the direction of White Buffalo Land. So, here we are.”

“Here we are”, Ricky echoed. “Listening to the light.”

Cecilia Götherström, December 8th 2021 

by

Elsa’s Song, Dec 7th 2021

“Can we travel through time with our questions? Is love alive? How many “out there” questions can you have lingering in your head in the space between waking and sleeping? Love can definitely travel through time though. I just know it.”

Watering eyes are glancing out across the landscape. Scarf masking mouth and nose, keeping the blizzard out. Beanie pulled tightly over eyebrows and ears. Nejla has been walking for what feels like hours but it can’t be more than fifteen minutes.

The train had stopped in the middle of the night. A huge tree, an ancient oak, had fallen across the tracks taking part of the overhead line with it as it went down, the conductor had reported over the intercom. The train could not get any further until the tracks were cleared and the overhead lines repaired.

Fortunately Nejla had booked a sleeping carriage for herself, Kriya, Tuva and Starlight.  It was some sight for the passengers boarding the train at the later stations as they passed through the narrow corridors on the way to their carriages. There, in coach  28 D, E, F & G, a woman reading in the top bunk, a husky, a malamute and a samoyed sprawled out on the two lower bunks.

The blizzard moved in less than an hour after the announcement, making it impossible for the railway repair crew to climb the poles to fix the overhead lines until the storm had died down.

The passengers were kept warm with nutmeg spiced gluhwein, steaming hot soup, extra blankets and hot water bottles. Saved by the fact that the kitchen on the train still ran its stove on gas.

Seven hours in to the wait, the dogs really needed to get out. For some reason Nejla had decided to strap on both her own as well as Kriya and Tuva’s backpacks. Starlight was a little too slender for those dogpacks so she’d gotten a smaller one. The only one available in the store that day was a glittery version, originally made for “glamorous poodles’ and not for huskies. But hey, her name was Starlight, so why not!

They stepped out of the train, Nejla planning to follow the tracks ahead, past the fallen tree and check  what the situation was. 

The same insight had guided her to attach the dogs harnesses to each other with the longer skijöring lines as well as attach two of them to her own skijörning harness.

Lumps of ice are beginning  to form on her eyelashes.

Cecilia Götherström, December 7th 2021