Reflect. Renew. Review.

by Kayce Stevens Hughlett

“Always we begin again.” St. Benedict

Once upon a time, I wrote an anonymous blog… unfiltered, mildly edited thoughts and musings straight from my journal. It began/continued/assisted deep journeys of healing—my own and, at times, others along the way. It ultimately turned into As I Lay Pondering: daily invitations to live a transformed life

Today, in honor of those beginnings, my writing, and the internal nudges that persist, I begin again with an entry written during the days between Solstice and the New Year. Thank you for joining me. 

Reflect. Renew. Review. These halcyon days of stillness and dark. When the winds are said not to blow. When sky turns pink and tree bones-black contrast against the morning dawn. Here I sit on Christmas Eve Eve. Monks chanting. Candles flickering. Ave Maria singing. I am here now. The deck outside my hermitage an ice rink. 

Review. Reflect. Renew. My word for 2023 was STRETCH. The year began with the stretch of missing luggage in Paris. Aurora borealis. Concert in a cold cathedral. Benin. Mama Wati. Gift. Grace. Stretch.

Winged Victory—those wings and no head. Her whole body open to the Universe. Bare branches and gray clouds. Graveyards and bones. Death and devil. The ongoing theme of what it means to befriend the “other side.” Voodoo. Vodun. Red dirt. A stretch and not. Being in the presence of kings, pythons, and priests. Losing my phone. Morocco. The gritty bones of January. 

Home again. Stretching into painting on large canvases. Crossing more borders. Mexico City. Ancestral grimoire. Meeting my own past lives. Touching the bones. A glorious Mother’s Day with my children and a surprise party for my husband.

May brought Bali. Once again. Heart and home. Different. The same. Themes of body betrayal and so much water. Stretching into art-making more and more. Covid at the threshold of August and September. Aslan, my beloved cat, aging noticeably. Sickness. A fall. Aching joints. Stretching into illness. My body not cooperating.  

A fall of adjusting plans. No trip to the desert. No Paris for my bestie. Birthday plans re-ordered, spontaneously and lovingly. We are shapeshifters. A trip to Texas. My roots. Winning Chicken shit bingo. Reading Tarot at a conservative business conference. Red boots named “Lucille.”

October brought a visit to “She Who Watches” (a petroglyph in Eastern Washington found on the Gaian Tarot Nine of Air.)  Following trolls. Journeying with a distance healer. Feathers. French witches for Halloween. Thanksgiving at Chez Hughlett. Deep deep gratitude and wonder.

Late November, off to South America. Stretching into my 6^th continent of the world. How did this become my life? Beginning and ending the year with watery magic. Mama Wati and Iguazu Falls. Red dirt and rainbows. Pondering what it is to TRANSCEND. 

Namaste. Thank you for reading.