December

Chapter One

I like birch trees the best.

They are tall and skinny and their branches reach out like fairy wings, allowing me full access to their heights and beautiful leaves.

Another favorite of mine is learning.

I love learning to be aware of my surroundings, courtesy of the deer. How to run away from danger when I can no longer fight. To stare at things I fear too much until they hopefully go away. And if they don't, well, I use what I learned from the wolves.

The wolves teach me how to fight and how to protect myself; to bare my teeth and make myself look larger. To make certain I come home absolutely safe the next day.

I love the way the spiders teach me how to weave powerful wings that take me above the trees. How they teach me to be gentle with the thread and at peace with myself as I weave.

I love running with the coyotes. Their howls that I imitate as I sprint faster and faster. My heart beating quicker, pumping blood throughout the lines of veins and arteries that spread throughout my body.

And the Phoenixes, I live for how they teach me to fly and to meditate, to rise even when I have fallen exactly as they have risen from their ashes. Their wings flapping with gorgeous intensity and the feeling of getting warmer and warmer from the inside out as I near them.

And, finally, I love the calm of the fields as I run through them with Zen - her hair flowing in the wind as she runs across the meadow, laughing. We always end up falling to the ground that is covered in flowers in laughter, staring at the clouds until they fizzle away into stars. We eventually fall asleep, and I do it all again the very next day.