A Samhain Welcome Home

It feels almost impossible for the New Year to be just a few days away. There are a handful of reasons I’m glad to have it behind me, but a big ole bucketful of reasons I am thankful to have seen it to its end. I am here, proof of life, my daily goal now. Not just waking and walking through the day, but touching every day with both hands.

Samhain’s Delicious Decay

As Samhain approaches and the weather changes, I can’t help but connect to the beauty of this delicious decay. The smells of the earth rising into the low fog of early fall mornings. Trees shaking off their sweaters of orange, yellow and lime greens, red and browns, reaching into the sky like a million outstretched fingers. Such a perfect example of what letting go looks like.

I absolutely love trees, I have my whole life. I’ve found refuge in them, and spaces to simply sit and be still. Through every stage and season, the changes, the loss and the regrowth, they remain, growing and changing alongside me.

This year I was blessed with a trip North, by some very dear friends. As I sat watching the changes along the road outside the car window, I was in awe. The further we went, the taller the trees got and the smaller I became.

Under the Trees

I spent several hours wandering with my guitar and stopping to play under one tree and then another. My own ocean of color and dirt. A sea of maple whirligigs dancing through the air, and pine needles thrown like darts racing towards the ground.

I sang the water, watching the little bubbles that form along its edges – proof of the teeming world beneath its inky surface. Listening to the life that is busy and about its business. The crawling insects and the scatter of squirrels gathering and hiding a stash here and there.

All this work in preparation to be still. All this work to reach a place to simply sit down and stop. And so for a few days in a place far from home I did just that. I stopped and I listened. I listened to my heart slowly fall back in line with the beat beneath my feet. I listened as my breath began to match the thrum of the withered bark at my back. I stopped and I felt the fall breeze dance across the nape of my neck and trace the edges of my collar bone with its cool fingers. I stopped and I listened to my place in this world.

Closer Than We Realize

We are all a part of each other, and maybe perhaps even more so at this time of year. As one veil thins so I believe do many others. Erasing the lines between one life and another. The tree and I are so much closer to each other than we realize. The crawling ant beneath the giant lob-lolly pine and the crow calling high above my head – for now in these moments we are all a part of each other.

Each of us in our own way prepares for the coming winter, in our minds and hearts and homes. Most years I’ve developed a detailed and sometimes long list of intentions for the coming new year, this year I’ve only got one. Live with meaning, covered in love and grace.

I’ve come to know and enjoy more fully a slower and less complicated life these past few months. I am thankful each day for the beauty of my life and, just like the trees as the leaves have shaken and blown away, I’ve found just how strong my roots truly are.

Connecting in a Time of Letting Go

I’ve been reminded of what a strong and loving family I have. The members I was born to and the ones I’ve chosen and that have so wonderfully chosen me back. We create our own grove whose roots feed and nourish each other. Giving and taking as needed, watching each other through the many seasons of our lives.

I encourage you to take the time over these next few days to reconnect with the outside world around you. Stop and take it all in. The changes, the smells, the colors, the temperatures, the change of the sky into its fall softness. Find a nice tree and lay beneath its branches, watching the last of its leaves let go. As each one falls, release what you need to and hold tightly to what you love and brings you joy. In the coming months we will need these wells of hope and squirrel stashes of love.

Welcome Home

If you’d like, you could sit and listen to Welcome Home, the first song off my upcoming album Among the Elders and the Ash. From my heart and the trees and straight to you.

Look to the trees how they bend, how they flow,
Through the seasons of life be it sun, rain or snow.
We’ve both come from the stars and life so far away.
We both need the time to let the old fall away.

Excerpt of lyrics from “Welcome Home” by Krista Chapman Green released 2025 from her upcoming album “Among the Elders and the Ash”.

Intentions Made Visible

If you are also so inclined to get outside and do a little wild crafting may I suggest a few ideas! Maybe one will be a perfect fit for you and some folks you love to share together.

I like to gather up a few small limbs or even a handful of small sticks from the yard and make several little bundles to be used as “fire starters”, I actually use them as spell starters! Tie your bundles with cotton string, and write your intentions on the sticks and then toss them into a fire and watch the flames grow along with your intentions. Imagine them filling the air around you and becoming a living, breathing thing that walks beside you. When our intentions become real, our results become visible!

I like to write things I would like to let go of on sticks, as well, then cover them with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed. Once done, I hang them from a tree and when all the feed is gone, I let it go. I like to think of the negative things I’ve let go of becoming positive by way of becoming fertilizer. Again intentions made visible often bear visible results!

Lastly, if possible get a group of friends together and remind yourself of the glories of a good fall fire. Dance, sing, chant, pray, scream, cry, hug, yell, whatever it is you need to do. Create and hold that space for one another.

Wooden Goddess at Ramblewood in Maryland, photo by Krista Chapman Green

Holding On

We need each other now more than ever. As Samhain comes and goes and the leaves fall and we plunge head long in the long dark, hold each other.

Remember each other, remember your ancestors and remember yourself.

We are Holy, we are Divine, we are the fall and the rebuilding.

~Krista Chapman Green

Featured photo by Pawel Hordjewicz

For more information about Krista Chapman Green, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to Krista’s sites on the web, check out Krista’s page on Pagan Song.

Pagan Song has an abundance of informative and transformative Samhain posts, and you can find them here.

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