Waiting for Go Dog
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Every morning my dogs, Sophie and Ritchie, get up at 6 a.m. – O-Dark-Hundred. And every morning, they want to go outside and run in unrestrained joy. But our area is rural. There are packs of coyotes prowling the night, looking for prey. At this time of year, when winter is still set in and food sources are slim, it’s not a stretch to know they would attack a smaller dog. When we hear the hunters yipping and howling, the dogs’ ears prick forward, they hunker down, and I repress a shiver of primitive fear.
Like our ancient ancestors, we wait for the sun to rise – the promised time when the wildness will retreat to its lair and the illusion of safety will be reinstated. Even now, in the middle of “civilization” where, as Wordsworth said, “The world is too much with us.”
Waiting for sunrise…waiting for spring. Living in the tenuous balance of the natural world and the artificial world we’ve created.
From my window, I watch for the pink blush of swelling buds, the vivid white of a few brave snowdrops thrusting up through fallen leaves, and I wait for the sun and warmth. Yes, I do some basic work in the garden searching for the place of unrestrained joy in my own heart. Like my pups waiting for sunrise, I wait for warmth and growth. I celebrate the festivals and days that mark the slow turning of our seasons.
Each morning, Sophie and Ritchie wait patiently until I judge they can go out and be safe. I throw open the door and call “Okay! Go!” With a scrabble of paws, they’re off and racing.
The time before, the waiting time, the patient time, is calm and peaceful just like winter can be calm and peaceful. The changing of the seasons, the lengthening and shortening days, the natural rhythms of the world are bred into our bones – even in our safe homes. Darkness is the symbol of fear and evil; sunrise is the symbol of safety and goodness.
The witches co-created with Sue Old and Linda Jordan in our Witch Magic series are deeply attuned to the natural world even though they are urban dwellers. They mesh with the rhythms of the seasons both in how they nurture and how they protect themselves and others from fear and darkness.
The world turns. The sun rises and sets. Winter creeps across the land and then melts into spring. We wait for the moment when we can race outward into life and growth, completing the natural cycles of deep rest and glowing energy that subtly rule all of our lives.