The fates

New years eve. There is little fanfare for the new year out here in Montpelier Virginia. No wild parties, no bursting fireworks, nor countdown celebrations for a new year. Only the cloak of darkness lit up by the stars and the rays of a new moon. I used to go out for new years, but I no longer feel the urge to celebrate, at least in gaudiness and pomp. A celebration should be anytime you make it I feel, spontaneous. New years feels too much like a forced celebration these days. Maybe I'm just over it. So I had endeavored to stay in all alone, cook some dinner, drink some wine and watch a movie. Totally chill quite evening to myself. After chatting with Meagan though (off to see huge fireworks displays in far off Edinburgh) it made me feel like such a scrooge I decided to go do something. So I went into the city and spent the evening with my aunt and uncle going out to dinner at the Mekong. My family used to always get together for new years dinner at Yen Ching or the Mekong. Our own tradition and I have missed it. So this was just right.

I thought all day on what to blip for the last day of the year. I have been reading a lot since I've been back. I picked up, The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges recently. A fun book that is like an encyclopedia of fantastic mythical and real creatures! A book of fantasy to get lost in for fun, but also full of symbol, meaning, and history. After all, we create these creatures. All cultures create their own mythical creatures. Weather dragons, garudas, nymphs, fairies, Jinns, Chinese foxes and many others . Conceived through our own fantastic imaginations, often they are archetypes for what we cannot explain both in the world and within ourselves. Tonight, the dawn of another year what better symbol than the fates, the weavers of time? According to Borges here's what I found out...

According to medieval Norse mythology what we know as the fates were known as the Norns. There were three principal Norns whose names were Past, Present, and Future. These three maidens weave our fate beside a fountain at the foot of the great tree Yggdrasil, which is the world. In 1606 the fates reappeared in Western conscience when William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, transformed as three Witches who foretell the fate that awaits the soldiers. Shakespeare called them the "Weird Sisters". Wyrd, for the ancient Anglo-Saxon people, was the deity that presided over both mortals and immortals. Figuratively, time.

The fates that weave time. And time will tell what awaits whatever it may be and thats all any of us can hope for. Big prayers for a new year :)