Monday Musings for January 29, 2024

Here we are, nearly the end of January. I know I've been promising more ukulele content and posts here, but the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of visiting with my nieces who live on the other side of the country and celebrating my son's 16th birthday and getting sick with something really nasty that may or may not have been Covid. 

The visit wiht my nieces was just what I needed, although I was a little freaked out to see my older niece, who is 22, drinking a beer one night after dinner. In my head, she's still seven years old, holding Colden on her lap and talking about her friends from school. 

Right after they went back to Reno, I started in with some sniffles, and I didn't think anything about it, until I woke up one morning with that same burning sensation in my chest that I had when I had Covid in the autumn of 2022. It was the same damn sensation, but slightly more intense, but none of the home Covid tests I took came up positive. (To be fair, none of the home tests I took in 2022 came up positive until I went to the Urgent Care and had a positive molecular test, sooooo...) Whatever the heck this virus was just wiped me out for a week, and I still wake up with a slight burning/dry feeling in my chest and a cough. Could it have been Covid? Absolutely. Someone I know was told that her husband most definitely had Covid despite MULTIPLE negative tests because of his bizarre symptoms - mainly, the fact that his oxygen levels keep dropping. Neither she nor her husband ever tested positive for Covid, but here we are. (And I'm going to stop there because I could go on about how capitalism will kill all of us eventually with this pandemic just so the ultra-wealthy can get a little more wealth.)

Anyway. 

Ukulele content, right?

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Imbolc is coming up this week on Friday, and I can feel that shit in my bones. I've been wrapping Tree Of Life pendants on gemstone cabochons all week, and I have a few more on my work table for today adn tomorrow, if I can put down my uke long enough to make them. Something about seeing those stark branches up against the winter sky that makes me restless and somehow totally at peace at the same time. 

I was doing some shamanic reiki practices with the trees on my property around Christmastime, but I've been slacking lately. I need to get back into that groove this week, starting right after I finish this blog. 

But back to Imbolc...

Imbolc is the midway point between winter solstice and the spring equinox, and it means we've made it halfway through the winter. (In theory.) You can feel it when you walk outside lately, how the Earth around me is in the middle of a deep rest. On the days when it snows, there is a hush while the ground catches the sky. 

It is also known as St. Brigid's day, a Gaelic feast day to celebrate the patron saint of strong women and metalsmiths everywhere. Some traditions celebrate it as the begining of spring, but hopefully here in the North Country, we have a little more winter ahead of us. 

Even if you celebrate February 2 as Groundhog Day, there are some connections to the old pagan folk tales. The Crone Goddess Cailleach would gather wood for the rest of winter that day. If it was cloudy, then she wouldn't need as much wood and therefore herald an early spring. If the day was sunny, she would collect as much wood as she could, because we would need it for a slightly longer winter. (Think Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Punxsatawney Phil.) 

If you're looking for small ways to honor this point on the Wheel Of the Year, you can light a candle or two to show gratitude for the fire that keeps us alive and warm during the winter. Baking bread and consuming dairy are also ways to honor the energy of Imbolc. And you can wear symbols of the season - seeds, acorns, and trees are all good ways to express your thanks and lean in to the energy of this time of year. 

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As for ukulele stuff... There's a themed ukulele challenge coming up this week in one of the FB groups I belong to, and it's a Valentine's Day themed challenge. Each day between February 1 and February 14, you post a video in the group of you playing and singing a Valentine's Day-themed song on your ukulele. 

As I was looking at the prompts for each day, it occurred to me that maybe I could slip a couple of original songs in there as well. Nothing like making the challenge a little more challenging, right?

After I get this blog done and maybe get a newsletter done (because it's been a hot minute), maybe I'll sit down and write a song for the first prompt - a song about love lost or unrequited love. 

So here's hoping I can get some more uke content brainstormed and written this week, and otherwise, I'll see y'all next week.