Day 2, We Are Winter Poets

companionship

Oh friends,

Winter is here, it has arrived, the longest night of the year and Grandfather Sun’s birthday, all wrapped into one.

Ask we look behind us, stay present to this moment, and forge ahead into the coming cozy, cold season, let’s remember how words comfort us, hold us, and teach us about ourselves.

Today’s word is c o m p a n i o n s h i p .

What an expansive word, even to see it typed out that way. Companionship draws something out of us, asks us to be dedicated to someone else (or to ourselves, we are our own companions too, aren’t we?), and leaves us longing for adventure in one way or another.

In all honesty, I’m not sure if we choose our companions or if they choose us, or if there is this magical, gravitational pull that pushes us into one another’s lives for just the right reason at just the right time.

In Winter’s Gifts, Dani’s companion is her dog, Sam, who is based off our beloved Sam, who we had the joy (and sometimes difficulty) of knowing for sixteen years.

In the book, Sam is always there by Dani’s side, especially when she’s questioning herself, her relationship to Mother Earth, her own knowing.

Sam was my companion, staying by my side when I was unsure of things, when I was pregnant with both our kids, when I needed a pack mate. He was always there, in between his own adventures.

companion: a person or animal with whom one spends a lot of time or with whom one travels; one of a pair of things intended to complement or match each other.

(here’s what came up when I prompted “companions” in image search, take a look)

Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash

Photo by Mahdi Bafande on Unsplash

Photo by Raoul Droog on Unsplash

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

So let’s pause here.

Take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, get comfortable, and ask yourself, what is companionship, who is companionship, how is companionship?

I can’t wait to see what awakens from the questions.

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Companionship

There are relationships we choose, cultivate, and curate over the years,

and some, we simply don’t, because a companion is found by magic and reciprocity.

When I needed someone, they were there, waiting, sure of us.

We may tell ourselves that we are lonesome creatures, but honesty 

really is the best policy when it comes to our need for one another.

We were made for companionship.

These days, the companions in my life accompany me on the journey—

my partner, Travis, in marriage, friendship, and climbing adventures;

my dogs Jupiter and Blaze, with their steady, daily presence through the mundane;

and my boys, who keep me tethered to the world, to myself, and to the future.

Then I expand my own circle outward and remember those who stay beside me,

those walking the same journey, asking the big questions, making room for expansive love.

We hold each other steady, we travel the world hungry for more care and kinship,

and yes, we dream up a better one where companionship might not be

so hard to come by, but this thing that finds us just as we find it, healers reaching healers in very real time.

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See you tomorrow, friends. Winter has begun.