THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONNECT

As humans, we crave connection with others. The convenience of reaching out to and interacting with others online has been a life saver this past year. Yet it seems a full diet of virtual socializing while living in our pandemic bubbles has left us hungry for simple human contact—face to face chats, a gentle touch, a warm hug.

Spring has sprung, and with it wide spread access to vaccines that promise to protect us from worst of Covid-19 symptoms and complications. The feeling of renewal that comes naturally with this seasonal shift is multiplied by the belief that life will once again be as it was (cue deep sigh of relief).

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little giddy about coffee dates with my friends again. I'm looking forward to celebrating my wedding anniversary with my husband later this month, inside a sit-down restaurant enjoying dinner I won't have to cook and a cocktail I won't have to mix myself (badly).

I can't wait to hug my grandchildren, and I'm over the moon that all of this is happening in time for the pending arrival of my first great grandchild.

On the day of the full moon, I took a walk in nature, to a little forest park not a half mile from my back door. Like Demeter awaiting the imminent return of Persephone, the very air vibrated with the energy of anticipation, and the assurance of better days ahead.

I took the same walk at Winter Solstice, and though the temperature was about the same, the trees were bare and snow dusted the trails both days, the difference from one season of death and decay, to another of renewal and life, was striking.

In many ways this past winter, all of human life on this planet was forced to withdraw and turn inward. We were all made to feel the loss of decay, the shedding of old skin. Likewise we are all now experiencing the joy of renewal.

I hope I've come away with lessons that will serve me well. I hope others will too. My desire is that we understand that people are more important than things, that basic necessities like food and water, a place to call home, access to health care and the wherewithal to pursue some piece of happiness, is more important than 7-figure stock portfolios.

I hope more of us are aware of how our actions affect others, moving ever outward like ripples on water, from our selves, to family and loved ones, to our neighborhoods and communities, the global village and the universe. We're all in this together.

No man, nor woman is an island. We are each a cell in the organism we know as nature. We exist best when we live in harmony, connected to all life, to all living things. In my Ojibwe traditions, this is called being in right relation. All living things are relatives, the two-legged, the four-legged, the many legged insects and no legged mollusks, the plants, the rivers, and all the earth we live on.

Our infrastructure and technology have the ability to both connect us and separate us. We have seen the shadow energy of using technology to build walls and compounds, to turn others off with a switch and withdraw further into solitary focus during this winter of disconnect.

The ability to step back and to establish healthy boundaries is good and necessary, but after a year weighted too heavily toward physical and social distancing, our connections are short circuited. We are not in right relation.

Recently, I was able to lead this guided mediation in the Zoom Lounge of my favorite online witchy group, The Way of Witch. May it open and activate your chakras so that you may reconnect and find yourself in right relations. So mote it be.

• Light a white candle (white light being all colors).

• Spend a few moments visualizing each chakra from root to crown as a blossoming lotus, a spinning wheel, or simply a glowing orb of light.

• Repeat the affirmations for each chakra three times