Tilly’s morning: following the trail into a new year full of myth, magic, and adventure. We wish you a gentle transition from the old year to the new, with plenty of enchanted pathways to mosey along…. – Terri Windling in Myth and Moor. (Tilly is Terri’s dog, running along a trail.)

After 2020 and 2021, it’s not surprising to see that New Year’s Eve brought out a caterwauling of cynics. Understandably, they echo the sentiments of people who’ve been punched, kicked, or slapped so often they cannot see the world as anything other than more of the same.

Sylvia Lindsteadt has written that “Humans are storytelling creatures. We need story, we need deep mythic happenings, as much as we need food and sun: to set us in our place in the family of things, in a world that lives and breathes and throws us wild tests, to show us the wildernesses and the lakes, the transforming swans, of our own minds.”

I believe her and I hope that as we mosey along through 2022, we’ll be drawn more to more stories of hope and success than the noir rales that are now in vogue. It’s hard to switch from noir to hope because there’s been so much darkness that hope somes across as impractical and naïve.

My view of the world often matches that of Marianne Williamson–her spiritual writings more than her politics. But it’s dangerous, so to speak, to quote her sentiments today because, well, then people look at you funny–and we don’t need that!

Much better to tone down one’s words to “stay well and be safe” even though they fall short of helping hands what are really needed for a wondefully enchanted 2022.

Be safe,

Malcolm

Listen to the story that started it all (the Florida Folk Magic Series), and and AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award winner.