The bark beetle's larvae create "galleries" in the growth tissue under the bark, known as the cambium.  Each beetle has its own pattern, or signature. As the last hours of the year tick away, may your happy, moving, gratitude-filled experiences be etched in your memories and living tissue so that no amount of time could erase them.  And, may those difficult times, the heartaches, loss, and betrayals be written in the snow, to melt away and be recycled without evidence they ever existed. On the surface, it may seem easy to identify where you would place each event.  Wisdom asks, "Are you sure..." and invites you to go deeper.

The mysterious raven is an appropriate talisman of transmutation on this Winter Solstice. Renowned for traveling between worlds, he is aloof, yet always watching. Because he has one foot in each world, he is of both...and neither. There is no judgment on which is better; nor is there fear. Death and birth are both beginnings, and endings, depending on which side we stand. This is the infinite flow of energy as we transform from one state to another.