It's deja vu all over again

It happens here every year and no one captured it better than Joni Mitchell in the beautiful "Urge for Going." The season is finally changing. You can feel it in the morning chill air, the smell of decomposing leaves turning to humus and soil, the quiet crackle of dried grasses in the wind.

If you've never heard "Urge for Going," particularly Tom Rush's exquisite version, please stop what you are doing, click here, and treat yourself to this soul-searching poem/song of hunkering down for colder, darker days ahead.

The warriors of winter give a cold triumphant shout. And all that stays is dying and all that lives is getting out.

[...]

I'd like to call back summertime and have her stay just another month or so, but she's got the urge for going, so I guess she'll have to go.

I heard John Platt of WFUV (excellent DJ on a most excellent station -- listen, love, support!) relate this story earlier this evening. Joni apparently sent a tape to Tom with this song on it and said something along the lines of, "I've written this song. You can have it although I'm not sure if it's any good." Even the most brilliant among us doubt themselves from time to time.

So, as we enter the Christmas season -- today is the first Sunday of Advent -- and as we head toward a transition of power in this country the likes of which I cannot recall, remember that we live in cycles. Nothing stays forever. When you embrace that reality, you gain serenity in every NOW that you have.

I hope you embrace the next four weeks leading up to Christmas and find joy in the season (yes, it really is deja vu all over again), peace amid the craziness and enough love in your heart to share generously in unexpected places. December 25 will come and it will go. So will January, and all the rest of 2017. Be present. Be active. Be open. Be the change...and make your world your own.