It has been a very interesting year so far, even if we’re only a month and a half into 2023. I’m not talking about in general, necessarily, though it certainly has been a generally interesting year in terms of the broader world stage. I want to talk today about that which is closer: Awaken the North. When I joined in 2021, this organization was different. Not different in a good or bad way, just…different. Different faces, different vibes…different. I look back at it this morning and I can track all the changes, all the shifts. There have been hard times, and there have been grand times, but what I see most is this: growth.
I don’t mean growth in numbers; tangible and sequentially higher numbers on a page or screen track growth on a scale that is surely important– and those numbers have indeed gone up. However, attempting to judge the success of a movement or project based on numbers alone removes the soul from the equation. It reduces the meaning like a sauce in a pan (sorry, I’m a cook, kitchen analogies abound).
I don’t mean growth in stuff, either. At a steadily ticking rate, we have added new courses, new programs, new projects. Again, this is not an inherently good or bad thing. The more we have for members to be involved in, the more involvement increases. In the case of courses and such, with one of our main goals being to educate and elevate, we are doing well in that endeavor.
What I’m trying to get at here, in this under-caffeinated and overly-complicated opinion piece, is that I have witnessed AtN grow as a body, as a living breathing organism, made up of so many parts functioning like cells. Each individual member adds to that being, bringing something that no one else can bring, and we have tried to ensure that those individual offerings are recognized and appreciated. We don’t always succeed at this. But in the last month and a half, I have witnessed it happening in real time, in the shuffles and the adjustments. If Awaken the North is a tree, we are attempting to grow it mighty, with care and compassion.
Change is a natural part of our universe. It is, according to some, the only constant. It is a spiral though, and not a straight line. It circles around and back on itself, taking some parts forward and leaving others behind. The old ones knew this; they made that clear in the lore. In the sagas, we see an (often exhaustive) insistence on explaining past events before getting to the crux of the issue–similar to my writing, no? In the myths, we see the beginning all the way to the end, from Ginnungagap to Ragnarok, and then we see it begin again. A…cycle, if you will.
To attempt to halt change and growth within any construct is to fight the indelible order of the universe, often with less than stellar results. There are, of course, exceptions–such as halting unchecked cell growth that could lead to severe illness, or employing hormone therapy to assist in attaining a body that matches the mind. Even these things, though, are aspects of growth, pruning and nurturing and ever moving toward a healthy, stable system. Sometimes those aspects are hard. They’re hard to endure and hard to enact, but ultimately for the good of the whole. And so it is that I have been honored to watch this organization–this amazing group of people–grow.
We grow in knowledge, we grow in wisdom, we grow in frith, and we grow in faith. We change and we shift and we undulate, and it has been absolutely breathtaking to step back and watch for a while. I just want you all to know that I am so proud of each and every one of you, for whatever that’s worth. As always, thank you for letting me ramble. Hail the gods, hail the ancestors, hail the spirits, and hail, Awaken the North!
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