A prayer for the New Year

Inspired by one of my favorite tarot cards

Four of Wands

Ribbons stream 
in high places
Thin bright air of the mountains

I’ve returned home
after a long journey.

The trees here are familiar and
everyone is expecting me.

Bread is baking in the oven
and there are petals
in the road.

I stop at the spring
before the gates 
and the fiddles
and the laughter

And I drink away the weary journey
from the endless 
unconditional 
acceptance 
of the water.

I wash my face in the divine upwelling

	this ending is a beginning

I go home.

When I think about the kind of prayer I want to hold for this new year, for this next hip-swing around the sun, I think of the Four of Wands in the tarot.

I think of the feeling of homecoming after a long journey. Of being welcomed. Of stopping to drink sweet water and taking stock of where you’ve been.

Of finally arriving to the place you’ve been traveling towards these last dusty years.

What prayer are you holding for your new year?

Whatever it is, may the imperceptible shift tonight from starlight into new day bring with it a blessing of a new beginning in every way.