Cascade Reverie

The first and second winter storms have passed over us already here in Lakota Country, spreading a foot of snow at my house. The fifty mile and hour wind gusts have re-arranged the landscape here, to billowing, graceful sculptures, in shades of whites and deep blue. Gone now are the Dragonflies- Susweca (pronounced sutswetcha) in Lakota.

All that is left to remind me of their sleek and agile beauty is the lovely present with which JhonDuane thoughtfully gifted me:

 

 Now is the time of closing in, and sitting by the fire as I am tonight. The cold winds blow and swirl around the little house, but I am cozy and warm... curled in my quilts by the fire, and lost in a winter evening's dusk, dreaming of a Cascade Reverie:

Valley of the Cathedral Spires

 Let Us Pray...

 We have had wonderful weather all year this year. With much rainfall this Spring and Summer, the wildflowers have been abundant, and the prairie hills were verdant graceful waves, with sleek, grazing bands of horses, cattle, buffalo, antelope, and others of the hooved Nations.

Autumn in the Black Hills has been exceptionally beautiful this year, as well. Perhaps however, it merely seems the more so– with the knowledge that the brilliant beauty of South Dakota would soon dissolve into sweeping sheets of whites, greys and umber, and deep blue shadow.

In those last few precious moments, when all of Nature seems to hold Her breath at the height of glorious crescendo– I go to the 'Hills as often as I can, visiting the sacred Hinhan Kaga Paha, where it is my pleasure to worship...