honey and sting

Ann Blessing passed into the light this afternoon. We never met in person, but she and I had many enjoyable and engaging conversations by email and discussion list, mostly about Methos, ancient religion, and the intersections between. Ann was erudite and enthusiastic about her knowledge and about intellectual inquiry. As my undergraduate degree was in religion, we found plenty to talk about. Ann put me onto a key book on child sacrifice in the ancient near east that was the turning point in helping me write my one Highlander story of any significance, "Bindings." She was in hospice in the last few weeks of her life, and had written about being glad to have lived long enough to see the first signs of spring (in Ohio, where there was still plenty of snow).

I wrote this for her and it was shared with her by a friend on the scene. He said she liked it. Ann, thank you for your life, and for the blessings you brought to it.

Spring Is Waiting For You

for Ann


Spring is waiting for you,
bluebirds in the valley,
sun glancing off lingering snow,
beneath the ice, beneath the cold,
a quiet, potent, silvery triumph,
like a shout held in,
because the moment is too perfect
to disturb...

Spring is waiting for you,
mysterious and strange,
fulsome in the loam,
full of crawlies and wingies,
and fuzzies and whir,
slippy slidey pebbles floating
down the melting stream,
and little eggs popping open,
tadpoles and birdies,
tendrils of the shoots and seeds,
and there is disorder in the order,
and Goddess weeps crystal dew
for you to bathe your feet in...

Spring is waiting for you,
the way a lid lifts off the sky,
and it expands,
and a breeze floats in,
and you can breathe, in a different way,
because there is more space inside you,
space for Spring to unfold...

And it's in you and out and big and small,
pebble and sky and crawling things
and prayer and dancing and that shout,
finally, at the way it all dissolves, the way the light
dissolves the dust --
seed to seed, bone to bone, dust to dust --
waiting to set it all free