Just a few minutes ago, I completed the last part of my Resolution for 2002 (To submit something to a year's worth of issues of a locally-based Pagan periodial)

After I log off here, I will take a hot shower, and visualize washing myself clean of all the emotional and spiritual "Gunk" I've accumulated over the past year, visualize it going down the drain and into the Earth, where it will be recycled and transformed into creative energy.

Tomorrow morning, after the sun has risen again, as reborn as I will be, I will open the Yule gifts that are waiting for me: One from my dad, and the other from my Secret Santa.

Then, on Christmas morning, I'll open a gift from another friend (who is also waiting until then to open one from me).

And right now, in the present, I will post the following poem, to share with you all, written in honor of Yule, and of the spirit of community:

HERE WE STAND
by Ann Magill

Deep below our feet, there is a fire burning,
feeding all living things that swim the dark ocean.
This is our Dragon Mother,
breathing fire, pulsing life.

High above our heads, there is a fire burning,
feeding all living things that look to the sky.
This is our Sun Mother,
breathing wind, spinning life.

Here we stand: fire below us, fire above us.
Rising from within the darkness
as a dream rises from sleep.
Take my hand, and let the fire flow through us --
A current of light, from heart to heart.

Light the candles and sing and dance.
Let us rejoice in light from darkness.
Let us rejoice in our own rebirth.