FOI Winter Solstice Letter 2022
From: Cressida Pryor

These last few days have felt like the slow climb up an extra steep rise on a roller coaster...you can hear the grind of the gears and hooks as they engage with the mechanical lifting gear that will get us up the last precipitous climb...the clicks get slower and slower and, heart in mouth, there’s the thought: ‘What if it doesn’t grip enough and we go tumbling backwards?’... But we have paid our 2022 fee and we will reach that summit on the 21st, hover for a few days, and then, glory be, whoosh, the sun returns and we can perhaps hope and build again. Yes, we’re then into the ride of 2023...

There have been, and still are many things in our world that seem to pull us back. I could list all the challenges that this year has presented us with; horrific war, famine, climate change and spiralling prices...and yet despite this there can be the inter connection that keeps us afloat, both emotionally and spiritually.

I have had a couple of experiences recently that have reminded me of this:

The first has been the witnessing of a small starling murmuration over a new housing estate where my daughter lives...the estate was built about ten years ago and is close to the river Avon, of Stratford fame. The birds seem to have claimed the relatively new roof tops as fresh roosts and gather together above them in whirling swoops of coordinated acrobatic play...the edges of the ‘bird cloud’ seem to be held by a stronger band that holds their boundary with majestic flexibility and form. It is awesome and wondrous to see and hear their collective celebration of life.

The second was last week ,at the start of, what was euphemistically called, a ‘cold snap’...when the UK’s temperate climate was thrown into a week of freezing snow and ice. Knowing I needed to do some shopping, I stood outside the house, looking down the snow covered road...on the treacherously icy pavement a child was walking away from me, down the hill to her mum waiting in a car...then my eye was caught by a large car coming down the adjacent road, which joined the one I was standing on...this road has a steep incline and in everyday times I consider walking up it part of my aerobic workout...

Then as if in slow motion, the car approached the junction, where normally you have to stop...this time skidding straight on...the child had just passed the place of potential impact and the car slid up across the road and over the opposite pavement... slewed around and miraculously collided with nothing. Normally that road is lined with parked cars...as I type now I can hear the constant noise as vehicles pass regularly into town. Emergency services use it to get into the Cotswold hills...sirens are common place unfortunately.

I stood aghast at what I had just witnessed...so many potential collisions avoided in a Buster Keaton almost slapstick moment. The difference being, the master of the silent movies practiced his miraculous escapes over and over until nothing could go wrong...did this car and its passengers avoid catastrophe through a random flook or did the Goddess smile?

I feel drawn to the latter understanding...of course, there’s the perplexing question as to why other fatal accidents do happen. All I do know is that there are those times when we glimpse the underlying fabric of Divine interconnection and when we do there is a sense of clarity, awe and wonder.

Dear Friends, may the Divine Mother help us to enjoy her peace and remind us to pause during this busy season.

So we may we find moments of clarity, awe and wonder that remind us of that which connects us all…

May the sparks of our joining, kindle our resolve, brighten our spirits, reflect our love, and un-shadow our days as we enter the dawning of new light.

So may it be. Amen and Shalom.

With blessings, Cressida, FOI Steward.