Let us rest a while, here upon the soft and shaded green. We have only to fly to the top of that hill beyond and our journey’s end is upon us. While we rest, I shall tell you a tale, to ease our aching feet and bring peace to our minds. For it is a peaceful place we are surely to find.
“The woman was all alone in the world; forsaken by all, never to find company or companionship among the living, neither the dead. Forever unto distant days, destined to a life of an emptiness. A fish adrift of the seas. A tree separate from the forest.
She sat by a lake, lamenting upon her fate:
O Woe is me, for I am alone,
O Woe is me, for I have no family,
O Woe is me, for She has left me,
I am forsaken.
She cast her gaze upon the lake before her. The visage of Her looked back. In the reflection, She, our Mother, was sat next to the lonely woman. A smile of benevolence on Her lips.
The woman transfixed by the image cried bitter tears. She wept for moon beyond moon. Her body became cracked. Her hair did grow, so long as to touch the moon mirrored lake.
After nine on four moons, still she wept for her loneliness. The Daughter of the Night still sat with her, smiling and kind. The woman’s hair, brown and tangled sprouted new life, green shoots and leaves of green. They covered her head and they covered her arms. Her limbs became affixed and she was forever cursed to look upon her reflection, lamenting as her hair ebbs and flows with eddies of the lake.”
Over the hill is a lake that is fed by the river. Our beautiful willow resides there and we pay respect with our solitude and silence while she weeps.
Here, look to the mirrored sky upon the lake. The lake blinds with the beauty of the sun, so be careful as you peek. Am I as lonely as the willow you ask? That could never be, for I am Her Sister and with whom travels my every footstep. For She is our companion and perfect in every way.
But I have a love that cannot be, so I sit with in the shade of the willow with my solitude and share my woes. I give her company and She gives it to me.
Do you know the tale of The Fisherman’s Wife? “Every day the Fisherman came home…”
“Every day the Fisherman came home. He always traded his catch for beer. When asked why, he replied “If the fish do drink, then so should man. For fish are the blessed of She.” The wife was bereft and starving. She complained to her neighbours, “O why am I cursed with a fish for a husband?” She would often lament.
She heard her lamentations and in a spirit of wild capriciousness turned the Fisherman’s Wife into a trout. For She is Mischievous and perfect in every way.
The Fisherman caught his daily fish, placing his Wife among the catch. He traded the catch as usual for beer and went to his dwelling. Upon looking into his cup, She said unto him “A man may drink as a fish; but without the blessing of companionship, he is but a fisher adrift”. The Fisherman drank the beer and said unto Her “We are now joined, for I traded her for beer and the beer has become with me.”
She, furious at the trick cursed him with pain of head and sickness of stomach; where his wife did now dwell. For She is Justice and perfect in every way.
From this we know; to drink beyond merriment is to lose our companionship. The pain we feel is to remind us of excess. Lamentation must not be in vain, nor are blessings found at the bottom of a cup.
Do I drink to excess? To forget and lament? Of course! And I feel the Fisherman’s Wife within me the following day. She is such an angry, restless old soul. For She is Vengeance and perfect in every way.
The Angry Farmer 