A Sacred Pilgrimage To Santa’s Village

Usually One in my insanity,

From now on, Cautiously, there are Two.

On the highway, In the sunlight,

your eyes flashed doe-brown and our smiles were infectious and unstoppable…

We set Intentions and then

Deliciously, forgot about them, headed up the Mountain in the Tiguan

Wound around it, like the snakes I initially thought we might meet

the Copperheads in the leaf-litter and rattlesnakes amongst the timber,

We would have to Stomp. To wake them from their comfortable slumber.

But, in actuality, it had Snowed- The first breath of Winter on the first day of the month of December,

You crept around corners and snow patches, in the big car, and, looking around we kept exclaiming “How Pretty!”

Because to say just how beautiful it was, would have felt like Too Much, almost like a sin.

But, we found Church a few minutes later

White over pavement and then White over brown-red rocks;

Our careful footfalls pressed indentations of black leaves windowpaned by snow, telling of many seasons past

When, even one year ago, I did not know you.

(Unless somewhere, sometime, Else, on some plane)

The Magic palpable between us, little to do with romance… more like the knowledge shared of the sacred Awe of the natural world,

of Sisterhood.

Together, we (lightly) trudged up the little hill towards the beginning of the summit

That, marked off by a red gate, the portal to the top of the tallest Mountain in giles county,

And stopped,

did not enter there.

*********

Later on, our bellies full and us safe inside your home with the big pane windows and glass door

In joking,

over hot chocolate, you said “I repent”

And for the first time, Ever, someone told you that you did not have to.