Transforming "Spiritual Warfare": Day 20 (California)

 The Little Lad at Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Beach, CA. Samhain, 2009.

The greater part of my extended family resides in California. Mostly, it is a place of fond memories, family gatherings & warm moments. It is very much a place of my childhood. I have visited California only very rarely since becoming an adult & I tend to think this might be because my Grandmama, my icon for this fair land of sunshine & citrus trees, no longer breathes its warm air. She took some of its sunshine with her when she left us.

Abalone shell in tidepool at CCSP, CA.

Every visit to California in my adulthood has been significant. I went to my Gramps's funeral, I went to get engaged, I went to meet my future in-laws... My last visit to California I went broken. No, utterly shattered, emotionally tortured, in search of respite & recovery. The kindness of friends gave us a means to pick up the bits & pieces & fly them abruptly from the ice age of Alaska to California's sunny shore. It was the last week of October & the week of my 38th birthday. Blindsided by unexpected loss, I sought the healing waters, the heartwarming sun, the gentleness of its paradisical climate. Lulled by its diversions & balmy days, I was restored by this place. For this, California has my unlimited gratitude. 

I credit a good part of California's healing powers to the Pacific ocean. I am working with that energy & symbolism, appealing to a diverse group of saprophytes that sing siren's songs from the forest's rich, calm surface. Healing cleansing waters. Healing, cleansing fungi. Creatures of Earth & Water, may you mend our assailed freedoms, may you restore balance to our lands.