The Verge of Farewell

I wait in stillness,
in the quiet of night.
I wait alone,
when all things sleep
save the hunger I have for you.

Memories flood my mind
of a time-touched love,
of a starry night,
of rain and romance,
of devotion's tight embrace.

Locked in passion fueled by love,
our hearts, one heart,
our flesh, one flesh,
our souls, one soul
connected in worlds beyond our own.

And yet, swallowed in the sea,
we return to our lives,
riding the waves of love and joy,
of hurt and loss,
and finding our strength to go on--together or apart.

Though no choice have I,
no outcome will diminish my love for you.

My desires are simple, yet so rarely fulfilled!
I long for lazy days,
for laughter and light.
I long for cozy nights,
for love's sweet embrace.

No one will love you as I,
because no two hearts are the same.
No one will love me like you,
for you love me in ways
I thought only possible in dreams.

How do I move forward from this
if it is not I you long to lie beside
on cold winter's night?
How do I love again if my heart
belongs only to you?

You are the complement to all that I am,
the dark to the light.
For just as the dark longs for the warmth
and brightness of the light,
So, too, does the light long for something dark and meaningful.

Dark and meaningful, my love.
May warmth and brightness always be able to find you.

To One Far Away

Everything she touches she turns to art
Creating beauty with a wave of her hand
Everything she speaks goes straight to my head
Like fine wine or brandy on a cool autumn eve
Everything she writes I devour with yearning
Searching for signs she is thinking of me
And every time she smiles she touches my heart,
And my soul rides the waves of the kindled fire therein.

For the Gods have blessed her with creativity
Her touch blooms the flowers after cold winter’s reign
The Gods have blessed her with words
Her voice like sweet honey chained to my ears
The Gods have given her great knowledge
A pen for a spoon in a paper cauldron of wisdom
The Gods have clothed her in splendor
The light of Ausrine shines beautifully from her eyes

All I want is for her to look at me
That I may bask in all that she creates
All that she speaks
All that she writes
And all that she is
And my heart shall be thirsty no longer
And my soul shall run freely
Through fragrant fields of dandelions and sunlight

The Two Tenets of RDNA

As some of you may know, I am currently studying the ways of the RDNA in addition to the Our Druidry of ADF. I has been fascinating to see some of the origins of our own cosmology and symbolism. Before one may be elevated to the Second Order, they ask that you study and reflect upon the Two Tenets of RDNA, commonly recited simply as "Nature is good. Nature is very good."

From the Book of the Law 1.5: “The object of the search for religious truth, which is universal and a never-ending search, may be found through the Earth Mother, which is Nature; but this is one way, yea, among many.” This Tenet has been boiled down to the simple statement, “Nature is good.”

This first tenet places the Earth Mother, equated to Nature, as the end result of the quest for religious truth. The quest is “universal and never-ending,” and though there are other avenues, the Earth Mother must be accepted as a true path to this truth. In other words, the path of Druidry is a valid and meaningful means by which we may find religious truth in our lives. I do not necessarily feel that reducing this tenet to “Nature is good” quite translates the same meaning, but Druids are known for their witty and often cryptic speech.

From the Book of the Law 1.6: “And great is the importance, which is of a spiritual importance, of Nature, which is the Earth Mother; for it is one of the objects of Creation, and with it men do live, yea, even as they do struggle through life are they come face to face with it.” Likewise, this tenet has become, “Nature is very good.”

The second tenet elaborates on the first tenet, illustrating that the Earth Mother is of the greatest importance, because without her, humankind would not survive. The authors refer to the Creation of Nature with a capital “C,” which seems to denote a divine origin for its formation. Further, our struggles and hardships are ours along the way, but no matter our path, it is a path of the Earth, and we all must face this fact eventually. Reducing this tenet to “Nature is very good” makes even less sense here, because it completely strips the gravity of importance from the statement.

If I may suggest, perhaps a better pair of statements would be:

1. Nature is truth.
2. Nature is essential truth.

Those, to me, speak more loudly about the very basics of the reform.