Where love lives
A Full Moon Guide
This month’s full moon is the coldest yet, on the eve of a large winter storm. For this guide, I’m warming up by looking closer at one of my favorite {and controversial} holidays.
I admit I always loved Valentine’s day. It’s a bright fuzzy spot in the coldest part of winter filled with colors reminiscent of spring and people venturing out for a dinner or dance. I loved it because it reminded me of all the different ways love finds me.
I loved the little gift my mom would leave on our placemats at the dinner table. I loved the valentines we would leave in our elementary school classmates’ cubbies, the little notes you would find from someone you may not know so well. I loved the red and pink carnations you could buy for $2 in the high school cafeteria and have them delivered to someone’s classroom, more often sent to friends than romantic interests. I love spending a sweet dinner with Evan at my favorite restaurant down in Midland.
It is these quiet devotions, from acquaintances, family, friends, loves, that always made the day special. Even the smallest gestures weren’t required, yet people made them anyways.
It got me thinking about all of the ways we show devotion, especially this time of year when the snow is deep and the days are dark. I also happen to be exploring kapliczki, roadside shrines you will find dotting the entire Polish landscape from fields to forests, riverbanks, town squares, and private gardens. They are continuous displays of devotion with roots tied to pagan times.
“{P}agan rituals revolved around materiality and physicality which allowed individuals to experience their beliefs and connect with the divine. The tangibility of the sacred through devotional objects demystified the connection to the divine making the unintelligible intelligible.”
~ Meg Baker, from Isis And The Virgin Mary: A Pagan Conversion
These shrines are a love note to the divine, each one unique, made by artisans and local folk alike. They aren’t restricted to the wealthy, only to those who have a desire to connect with something greater. It is a love that doesn’t live just in the head or in the heart, but out in the world for all to take part.
