Happy Zoo Year

Here we are.  It's January, 2015.  Can you believe it? 

I have always been a person that cannot pass up a fresh start, a new day, a clean slate, an opportunity.  But I don't really do the new years thing.  My birthday is on the 6th-- and it has always seemed more true to the idea of reinvention-- doing it on my own personal new year rather than the homogenized calendar day that The Man and the hallmark people shove down my throat, our throats, everybody. 

I never loved having my birthday right after the holidays.  For one thing, people are always saying things like, "Whew, the holidays are OVER!" when it's, like, two days before my birthday.  Also, I've always suspected that people buy me loads of Christmas presents and then when they remember it's so close to my birthday, they split up the loot.  Folks are sick of it.  And they aren't shy about saying so-- celebrating a birthday in early January is overkill, it's annoying, we'll celebrate later.  Sure we will.  Sure.

People always ask me about my own spirit animal.  Truth is, I don't know.  I got a 'professional' reading once-- the woman told me I was a coyote with hawk medicine.  Both beasts have had a  formidable presence in my life.  One thing I know about hawks: they see things that other folks don't.  They fly ahead, above.  They see the big picture-- and sometimes pretty clearly.  What I've learned about this part of me: not everyone is ready to hear what the hawk has to report.  Especially true when the report comes out of the mouth of the tricky laughing coyote.  But that's what years are for, growing and learning.  One of these days I will be a very powerful coyote-hawk who knows just how to temper all my magic-- but for now, hang in there friends, bear with me.  It's a wild world out there and the best thing we can do is keep learning, keep smiling, keep loving, and keep trying to understand one another. 

So the full moon starts tonight.  Full Wolf Moon.  And it will stay full for three days.  During these next three days leading up to my birthday I will be around our local beer joints distributing the final batch of last year's animals.  Rabbits, hippos, narwhals: the first menagerie of 2015.  They are going out on the town tonight with SERIOUS good vibes-- because these are last year's animals.  But they are going to find purchase, dig in, and make this year work for them.

You'd be smart to hitch up your wagons, light your lanterns, and get on down this road, folks.  Welcome to 2015!