christmas story

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Elsa’s Song, Dec 16th 2021

As the sun is rising over the suburb and  the castle walls, spreading its morning fire over the rooftops, she speaks gently with a whisper from within her very being.


“Look at all the gold”, she says. “It is dancing on the street, in my fur, inside your heart.It is dancing within our connection”.

I see it. I really do see it! 

Thanking her, I reach down to her height, gently caressing one of her ears. Soft, gingerbread scented, furry red and white ears. She speeds up a bit. Time to go home. There is always a snack and a cuddle after the morning walk so it is time to get the priorities straight.
As we cross the street full of stressful morning commuters she slows down again. She speaks.

“Infuse a bit of sacredness in to everything you do, into every act.” She smiles and speeds up again.



“Sacredness is the key to so many doors”, Starlight explains as Nejla, The Crew, Maddy, Ricky, Luca & The Pack are in anything but a hurry getting everything sorted for the days trek. They are all enjoying the fresh morning air, the rising sun, the warm open fire crackling, the coffee & porridge scent, the dried meat and fish for the four leggeds, and basically just sharing space. Hanging out. In a way it feels like they don’t need to go anywhere, yet the adventure spirit is tugging to move on. Just a bit ahead. Without a real goal. Just to check what is next. While being present with what is.

“I think I just sprinkled my coffee with sacredness”, Nejla jokingly replied.

“I think we just spice every breath with sacredness”, Ricky said while jumping up and down after his dip in the hole he’d made in the ice, initially to fish for the dogs and Maddy.

“Every breath already is sacredness”, Thor the lead dog of Ricky and Luca´s pack barged in, grabbing the last piece of oatmeal porridge left in Nejla’s bowl on the ground. “All you need to do is notice it.”


From in between the trees Alabaster was watching this morning ritual of this “band of relatives” like he´d loving started to refer to them after his last conversation with Snowflake. He was there in the shadows to guide them safely through the Valley of Thorns, which is where they were heading next. It was the only way through to get to the higher ranges. 

The mist of transformation had started spreading out  from the narrow passage way already.

A small, blue butterfly flew through the air, circling the two sleds.



Cecilia Götherström, December 16th 2021

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Elsa’s Song, Dec 12th 2021

“Underneath the Christmas Lights, Underneath the Christmas Lights, Underneath the Christmas Lights”, Sia’s Christmas album streamed out of the speakers through Spotify. 

Nejla looked out through the guest bedroom window towards the large enclosed space especially built for the dogs at the back of Ricky and Luca’s home. 

Starlight was digging ferociously underneath the very Christmas Lights, or more specifically underneath the pine tree living in the corner of the enclosure which had been decorated with coloured Christmas lights. Her tail was fanning more than wagging, which was a sign of hunting. Nejla had better get out there and stop her before whoever was in deep winter sleep got woken up.

Grabbing her beanie with one hand, pulling her mushing boots on with the other, she simultaneously reached for the doorknob with her elbow which resulted in her tumbling out the door, rolling down the two steps of the porch, face planting in the snow. Well, at least she was wide awake now.

“Starlight, Starlight my dear. Come on! Stoooooooop!”

Starlight stopped, turned her head to look at her human. Two seconds later she turned back to the digging.

“Aaaaaaahhhh, huskies!” Nejla shouted as she ran through the knee deep snow.

As if they wanted to prove that this was not just a husky trait but also a samoyed and malamute talent, Kriya and Tuva ran from the other side of the yard joining Starlight in the digging.

All of a sudden they stopped, all three of them. Stepped back, looked down in the hole they’d dug, then across at Nejla who had stranded in a spot where the snow was all of a sudden waist deep to catch her breath, and then they looked back down in the hole again.

Nejla felt like she was swimming through the last part of the snow. It was just a dune of two metres width where the wind had piled up a solid wave of snow which was that deep before it was back to knee depth again. She arrived underneath the Christmas Lights Tree, threw herself on her knees, looking down in the hole together with the three canine ladies.

“Was that? No, she must be imagining? Could it be? Well it did. Did look like gold. But, no, it can’t be?”

Starlight pushed towards the hole with her nose, looking at Nejla, her eyes saying “look, look, look what I got you!”

Nejla reached down under the pine tree twigs, down towards the exposed part of the trunk, her lovika mitten clad hands spread out, gently grabbing and pulling the artifact out of the snow. As she held it up towards the dwindling light of the afternoon sky all three ladies of The Crew watched eagerly.  Nejla gently blew the last pieces of soft snow off the edges. A cauldron. A golden cauldron.

Cecilia Götherström, December 12th 2021. 

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Elsa’s Song, Dec 10th 2021

Alabaster sunk his paws deep in to the snow. He’d been up on the rocks, peeking down once more towards Pinehome City. 

They were all together now. Nejla, Starlight, Tuva, Kriya, Ricky and Luca. 

He could see them through his inner eyes. The two humans sitting on the floor by the Christmas tree. Sharing stories. Laughing. Remembering. 

All four dogs sprawled out across the large kitchen floor.

What had once been the “Grand” waiting room in this timber wood train station building from the 1800s was now Ricky’s kitchen.

Alabaster made his way down, returning to the pack. How he loved these moments of approaching, feeling the warmth in his heart, connecting through the golden threads to his brothers, sisters, all the pups. Watching every single personality doing their thing while being in total harmony with the entire canine family.

Sure, they could growl and show off, change, walk off, start anew, return, explore. But that was because that is how things just are.  If everyone is allowed to live out their purpose, harmony is what you get. And harmony includes storms, floods, falling trees, new growth.

 You use the mind, heart, and soul,  leading the body to the best possible solution for the highest good of all.

When you exist in a state of awareness where greed does not exist, you see everything through the eyes of Isa. The eyes of Isness.

He realized he’d let his mind wander in to the human domain again as he felt four youngsters rolling around him, asking for attention, nipping at his legs and paws.

“Come play, come play, Grandpapa Alabaster!”, they howled like a four octave choir.

“OK then!” Alabaster took off down the slope, zigzagging, jumping, rolling. Four young furballs falling over in his paw steps, doing their best to catch up.

A few of the packs hunters had just gotten back from their recon trip and joined in.

If you’ve ever seen a group of eight adult and four “just-out-of-puppyhood” wolves play on deep snow covered slope under the moon, star and sun lit winter morning sky, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Joy, aliveness, speed and wit dancing around in your heart.

Cecilia Götherström, December 10th 2021.

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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  

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Kringlans Kalender 2020. Sacred. Part 11. Dec 11th

Another evening on the path following the pawsteps of the little bundle of joy & life force Vayu The Whispering Wolf. They were being guided by Josephiel the Cloud Shrouding White Dragon floating in the air just above them through the valley,  heading towards the Mountain of Stillness and Silence.

Josphiel was of the opinion that wading through deep snow was no dragon business, taking to the wild blue yonder was.

Vayu had hidden a laugh within a yawn as he’d said “Let him believe he’s the one guiding us. There ain’t no better guide in this dimension than this very nose right here”.

Samantha was really enjoying these nightly hikes. They were usually on the move until just before midnight. Then they’d either find or build a shelter. For her, both Josephiel and Vayu were very clear about every time.

“For that somewhat frozen little human”, they would joke daily.

This evening they were getting close to their last hike among the trees. Shelter would probably be just above the treeline.

The glittering snow crystals reflected the Milky Way, or was it the other way around?

“Everything is a reflection”, Vayu said. “All the beauty you see in the world, all the things you reject, criticize or judge, they are all part of your perception reflecting back at you. That is why The Whispers are so powerful. Why you want them on your side. The Whispers are closer to Truth than the words you cover them with when you speak and think loud thoughts covering any possibility to perceive the most perceivable of them all. The Still Whispers of Your Soul. Only in stillness can you hear them. The Whispers.”

“Are you saying that this gorgeousness of diamondy glittery silver lives inside of me too?”, Samantha asked.

“Yes! And do you know what more lives inside of you?… 

Vayu went dead quiet.

“Come on, are you going to tell me?” 

Vayu did not move. He did not even flinch. 

Samantha looked up in the direction his eyes stared. Holy moly…. Was that an avalanche? There was no sound, so there could not be, right?

The sparkly cloud of glittery-moon-reflecting-snow-star-dust rushing down the mountain slope was the size of a jumbo jet.  As the diamond-dust evaporated something took shape where the sparkle settled.

“Mum!”, Josephiel twirled in the air, somersaulted towards them.

Right in front of Samantha and Vayu, the largest, grey-sparkling dragon anyone could possibly imagine.

“Enchanted”, she exhaled. “Mama D welcomes you all.”

  • Cecilia Götherström , December 11th 2020.
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Kringlans Kalender 2020. Sacred. Part 9. December 9th.

Marcus picked up his pen. His writing-feather was actually a ballpoint pen adorned with a massive feather.

He’d found it in a jewelry store of all places when he was fourteen years old. His mum had brought him to that store to pick out a present from his Mormor for his confirmation. Whether religious or not, everyone in the village got confirmed. It was more of a tradition than something strictly religious. A rite of passage. Somehow, somewhere along the way the event had gotten symbolized by jewelry.

Young Marcus would rather have gone out in the woods or down to the river with Mormor herself and picked out a stone together, but mum had insisted her mum wanted to give him something “valuable” that he could “cherish” for the rest of his life – preferably in gold. Marcus had smiled to himself at those words as he knew that was mum’s wish, not Mormor’s. Mormor – and Morfar – had always taught him that nothing is more valuable, nothing is to be cherished more, than this Earth we walk upon and all of her creations.

He’d seen the pen, a huuuuge Eagle Feather attached to it, between a selection of gold crucifixes and “faith, hope and love” themed earrings.

“That one, please”, he’d pointed to the pen.

Mum had raised her eyebrows, but before she could shake her head in a no Marcus had pointed to the little marking proving it was sterling silver. A compromise well worth giving she had decided.

Here he was, 35 years later, a celebrated composer and musician. And it was this pen, this pen only which produced the magic. As soon as he touched it he was transported. Just like when he put his fingers gently on the keys of the piano.

And Star.

She had been his co-composer. 

His magic portal.

All this time.

This morning he had gone out for a 4 am starbathing walk in the snow. Something or someone had called him out of his sleep. By now he had learned to listen to those “whispers”, as he called them.

Down at the river bank he looked up to the skies. North Star. Great Bear. Orion. The Doggies.

Across the ice a misty figure came walking. As the shape got closer it seemed huge. The size of a Polar Bear. He sat down. Rubbed his eyes. It was. A Polar Bear. Should he be afraid? He’d lived with a wolf with little over 12 years, so maybe not?

The bear stopped. A few meters out on the ice still. Saying;

“May I?”

Marcus gestured to the large space in between himself and the trees. The bear settled in.

“Thank you. It was one hmmmm of a journey getting here from the dimensions of the outer banks. But now I am here, you are here, so we can better get acquainted as we need to finish that piece “Home”. The most magnificent symphony to ever grace these dimensional planes.”

Marcus did his best to take it all in. The large white bear pushed him gently on the shoulder. “Barry’s the name. Like Barry-ton.” he said with a wink.

  • Cecilia Götherström, Dec 9th 2020.