We just finished the Portland Revels monday (Oregon) and it somehow seems like a continuum. I can't believe he's gone. He was so alive.

So the shortest day came, and the year died, and Jack died,
And everywhere down the the centuries of the snow white world
Came people singing, dancing, crying,
To drive the dark away, to bid farewell to Jack,
They lighted candles in the winter trees,
They hung their homes with evergreens,
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake,
They shouted, reveling and mourning both,
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us -- listen!
All the long echoes sing the same mixed delight
The shortest day
Jack's life
As promise wakens in the sleeping land
They carol, feast and give thanks for his life
And dearly love their friends and hope for peace
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year,
Welcome Yule,
and bid Jack farewell and Godspeed.

Blessings,
Barbara