Wednesday, December 10, 2014

It's hibernating time!

Which means, I have been working my tookas off. That's alright, because I need the money, but I will be losing 27 hours a week, come New Year's.

Honestly, I am ready for the time off. Time to turn in. Time to hibernate. Time to curl up in my cave and my blankets and fire up the crock pot. Time for soup. Time to add the fresh nettles and chard that I froze over the summer. Time to READ. Time to watch movies. Time to slurp up extra echinacea and elderberry, just in case.

I have the Llewellyn's Witch's calendar and this month has a piece by...somebody; I didn't mark the name before I sat down at the computer to write this.It's a short but excellent piece about the dark season. Why many people get seasonal affective disorder and why people are so unhappy this time of year-- because we (collectively) live the same way year 'round now, and don't embrace the season, the dark, the turning-in.

I don't get affected by that-- I love the dark season, but this year I am paying special attention to the turning-in, to the hibernatiing. With all the strife that is going on in the world, in my own country, I need the resting time, the healing time. Outwardly, I am giving more to others, when I can. In my heart, I am keeping the dark season. Getting ready to welcome the Sun.

Blessed Solstice!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

My Birthday Kicks Off the Holiday Season

So, I am going to be 55 on Monday, in two days. We are celebrating this weekend, because I have a pretty brutal work week coming up and won't have the time for birthdaying.
I am wearing my tiara! Black (plastic, but who cares) with lots and lots of sparkly bling.

True Love stayed overnight last night, and of course we celebrated in, well, rather our own fashion, and then this morning with a pot of steaming coffee-- "Foo" (International Delight Hazelnut, BLECHBLECHBLECH) for him and heavy cream for me. I made him breakfast, as I am dieting, and yes, I will be dieting through my birthday, but it's worth it because I won't be dieting over Thanksgiving, and I am having drooly dreams of turkey. Porn dreams of turkey. With the crispy skin and the buttery, oily goodness only an all-day roasted turkey can bring. Mmm....turkey. Butter. Green beans. NOT casserole. Just fresh sauteed green beans with lots of butter. Oh, and butter!

My birthday is November 17th, always about a week before Thanksgiving. I always hated when it was, when I was a child, because November tends to be so drear, but after living in Syracuse, NY, for 10 years, I got used to "bad" weather and it is my favorite now.
I love my birthday.
And, it kicks off the Winter holiday season.

Birthday, Thanksgiving, St. Lucia's Day, my mom's birthday, True Love's birthday, Yule, Christmas, and tucked away in all of that are other ones, like Boxing Day, Hogmanay, New Year's, Valentine's Day, my son's birthday, Frau Holle, and more.

LOVE the Winter. Love. It.
Crock pots and sweaters and mittens, oh my! 
It's hibernating time! 

I am so ready. Are you? What are your plans?

Sunday, November 2, 2014

It's November!

It's November, and wow, busy. Ain't gonna let up soon, either. Because my birthday is November 17th and in my book, it kicks off the Winter holiday season. I made, and am still making, a bunch of homemade stuff for people for Yule and Christmas gifts, and I am hoping to get lots of that done by my birthday.

Last night was the return to Eastern Standard Time. I have to say, I loathe, and I mean loathe, Daylight Savings Time. I think Mom Nature does a fine job all by her lone, making the light shorter in the Winter and longer in the Summer. Why do we meddling humans have to mess with it? And then mess with it more, by pushing back the shoulders by a week or two on either end? GRR!

So, we shall see how my body reacts to it this time. It often kicks my butt for a week.

And I was right about the peak leaves...I think the very peak day was the day after I wrote my last post, October 17th. It's drear out there for sure, since, and especially now, and is getting drearer, if that's a word ;)

I hear Asheville got a couple of inches of snow! Even here in MA we did not get any. We got a hella rain yesterday, but not cold enough for snow. That's alright...there'll be plenty soon enough.

But-- soup weather! Stew weather! Crock pot weather! Hibernating weather, oh, yay! You? Favorite season? Which? And why?

Thursday, October 16, 2014

AIR

It has been a whole season of Air, for me. Last post, I mentioned that my father was an airline pilot, and I put things of Air next to him on my Samhain altar...the bird's wing, the feather, the crow.

I keep getting Air messages and images...breezes, and you know, the other day I was marking the breeze and it felt like I got my whole brain aired out. WHOOSHED out. Hush about, any of you who want to say there's nothing in there anyway *glares at you*!

Today, we had a rain storm, all day long. The leaves are in full glory now, but by Sunday, when it's supposed to be pretty and sunny and 50* tops, I bet most of them will be blown down.

Air...it seems so benign, yet is so powerful.

I've been thinking lots about words, lately, and whether they have power or not, and how much power...they're an Air thing, I do believe. And yes, power indeed. That old children's rhyme SHOULD have been "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words, YES, they will hurt me". Words will cut for years and years and decades, where physical hurts only leave scars for a short time, by comparison.

It's a thing to do, I think, to become aware of how one uses one's words. I've been trying to, if not delete swear words from my vocabulary, at least use them in a discretionary manner...be able to modify what I say in which company. I have realized there is a very split second of time in which I have the power to say or not say, and in that very split second, I do make the decision. It is very conscious, though tiny. See for yourself if that's not true. Pay attention to when you are about to say something hurtful, and see if you can stop yourself. I bet you can.

I know there was more I wanted to say about Air....my ADHD brain has made it go POOF. Like, well, a breath of...yeah, Air.

Monday, October 6, 2014

On the way to work today, the leaves were falling like snowflakes across my path, portending the not-so-long-from-now real snowflakes that fall so prodigiously up here in MA.

North Carolina...oh, the lovely mountains...NC rather stopped getting the kind of snow and ice storms that it did when I first moved to the mountains back in '03.

I don't mind the snow. Not this early in the game. NC used to be seasonally appropriate. Then it got warmer, in general. I had to move to MA to once again get seasonally appropriate weather.

I have been here for a whole turn of the wheel, and then some. The trees are just about in full colored glory. Somehow, this year, they seem dead on the branches, which, I suppose they are, but they seem...dry. Wispy. Fly-away.

I've always known that the glorious leaf-coloring is the trees dying...I wonder if human death is so glorious, for the one that is dying. I wish it were so, for those of us left, when a loved one passes beyond the veil. How cool would it be if we went out in a blaze of multi-colored glory?

It's Samhain-tide. It's Ancestor time. I have made my altar and this year it only has my father and my grandmother (his mother, at about age 18) on there. I haven't even put my grandmother's hair thingy there yet. I will still wear it to the Samhain rite, as I do every year. It's funny how my dad was an airline pilot, and instinctively, I put next to him on the altar symbols of flight, of Air-- most of a whole bird's wing that I found in the back yard, a larger feather, a picture of a crow. I don't think it was accidental at all.

I feel them. Do you? Do you feel the pull of your ancestors? What are you doing this year to honor them?


Thursday, October 2, 2014

It's OCTOBER!

I forgot to say Rabbit, Rabbit yesterday. When I remembered, I said it to the cat...oh, well.

The season is definitely turning. Now, "hot" is in the 60s. That's alright. It needs to be. Yesterday and today is rainy and raw. Must be I'm the only one that likes this kind of weather. Everybody else complains. I think I hate the complaining more than any kind of weather the universe can throw at me.
I am trying not to be a complainer anymore. Gawd, it wears on a person.

Long, long work day today-- nearly 9 hours. I'm not complaining! I'm loving it, actually. I'm grateful for the work. I like the person I'm working for. We get to watch old British TV shows on DVD sometimes, and today I get to bring my laptop (who knew they had wifi?) and cut up some of the 3 bags of apples I bought the other day.

I don't know what's got into me-- must be the season-- I bought a metric ton of local apples and I am going to make applesauce and apple butter in the canner that I also bought, as soon as I get some jars.

One day I am going to make jam the way my mother did-- with the wax seals. I just wish I knew people that ate jam, 'cause I don't, and my son doesn't, and True Love does, but it takes him months and months to go through a jar. Maybe I'll have them just to have them, and think of my childhood and my mom. Who, thank all the gods, is still very much alive and whatever the reason I have this pull to talk to her All.The.Time. and it is driving her crazy.

I think of my dad's mom a lot. I'm told I resemble her in more ways than just looks, her eclectic personality too, and that's OK. Tis the season of ancestors and she's on my altar, as is my dad.

Blessed Samhain. Let them in, let them in.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Blessed Mabon!

The temperature has finally changed. I was a little worried because I finally put the flannel sheets on-- my very favorite day of the year!-- and it turned hot. That day. Ugh.

When we lived in Asheville, I would do that, change the sheets out to flannel ones, and it would turn hot for a week solid, I kid you not, and I would put the air conditioner on rather than change the sheets back and then change them back again.
But here, now, this was just Saturday last, two days ago, and on the same day, we took out the window unit air conditioners and then flipped the mattress (side to side, if anyone wants to remind me for next time I need to flip it, which way I want to go) and put the flannel sheets on.
Then, Sunday, yesterday, it went to like 70+ degrees AND was humid as all heck. I had to stay out of the living room.

So we went out to Cauldron Farm for their Equinox ritual-- 3rd time there, 3rd time excellent time. LOVED it. Love those people. I am thinking about joining them, as a member. I miss Mother Grove a LOT-- but these are the coolest people, and I'm not going to be living in NC again anytime soon. I do really like them lots. They are real and true and they put on good ritual and you can't ask for better than that. Plus, it's a real farm, with goats and chickens and things. And a fire pit!

I am still dieting and did not partake of the potluck-- go me! But I still am stuck right at about the same weight for about a week or two, now. I'm not trying to maintain, dang it, I am trying to lose. Maintaining is for after I lose all I want to lose, and I want to lose 5 more pounds and I want them off last week and I want to eat. NOW. I'm getting off this next week no matter what. I'm hoping against hope that I can at least get three more pounds off before I do. I'm sick of the yo-yo.

My Mabon will be just a tad late, but I am having pork ribs in the crock pot and maybe apples and onions and mushrooms. Ideas? Is that good? It sounds YUMMY....happy Mabon, all. I wish you balance.

Monday, September 8, 2014

A Whole Year

I can't believe we have been here a whole year 'round, already. All the seasons. All the holidays. Mabon is upon us again.

I think we have found a Pagan home! We go out to a place called Cauldron Farm in Hubbardston, MA, about 40-odd minutes away. We've been to two of their public rituals and I had a great experience-- I find that as long as I insert myself into the ritual, I always experience magick. It's all about intent, but sometimes that gets forgotten in the new.

The Boy does not participate in ritual. He is 13-1/2 and is exploring his own spirituality, and what he believes. I think right now he identifies as agnostic, which is perfectly reasonable for a boy of his age. I don't force him to participate. I would love if he grew up Pagan, but I honestly don't care, as long as he is fair and true and not judgmental about other people's paths, and loves his path with all his heart and does not just pay lip service
.
I'm dieting-- which means, I want to get about 8 more pounds off, and I don't think I will do it by Mabon. I was going to just stop dieting so that I can have Harvest foods, but I think it is more important that I don't just take off the weight I gained back-- I want to take off more. So I think I will be dieting through Mabon. That's alright...I'm there for ritual and camaraderie anyway.

{Man...that word is hard to spell}

I can have my own Mabon feast later in the week, or the next week. I can appreciate harvest without having to ingest it on a certain day. Believe me, I will gorge when it's gorging time. For me, right now, it's time for scarcity. And that's OK.

And...the weather broke, finally, I think. Yay! Because two days ago, it was 88* and that is just way too hot for me. I found my last year's diary entry, though, and on September 11th, it was 89*. I think I shall not take out the A/C units just yet. Just in case. In case there is one last blast.

I'm actually looking forward to Winter. I am thoroughly enjoying the Autumn, though!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

56 degrees this morning, and I left the living-room window open. BRR! I have on my spider-web fuzzy pants and a flannel shirt. I love Autumn. LOVE! I have not got the flannel sheets on yet, but I sleep with two comforters and I am right cozy in the night time. I have started shutting the windows at night.

Last week there was a heat wave; it got near to 90* a couple of times, and yes, I did turn on the air conditioners. They're still in the windows. I doubt we are going to need them anymore, but I hesitate to take them out.

This year, I am for sure going to put plastic on some of the windows. I had a breeze coming in one of them last year. I have to remember to ask the handyman to take the screen out of my back door, and put in the storm window again.

The tree across the street appears to be changing its leaf colors, but it's hard to tell-- I think some of the leaves are actually dying. Which makes me sad, and also concerned-- why would they die?

I had slacked off on my deliberate spiritual practice for much of the past months-- I kept the Goddess and God in my heart, and I keep my vigilance for Paying Attention, as always, but I let go a lot of the meditation and self-blessing and smudging. I'm sporadically starting that up again, and it does feel good. In all honesty, I would love to make it a regular discipline, but when it feels like I HAVE to, the less I WANT to, so I have given myself permission to be a Slacker Pagan if I need to. That way, when I do do my spiritual disciplines, it feels more honest and less forced. Nothing feels good if it's not from the heart, eh?

Thursday, August 14, 2014

57 degrees this morning. FIFTY-SEVEN! Wow. I have fuzzy socks on.

This morning when I took my shower, I looked out the bathroom window, as I always do, to the giant sentinel pine trees that guard the small parking lot, and there was the beautiful waning moon, surprise! Between two of them. So lovely. Hai, moon!

Lammas was lovely. The Asphodel folks put on a very powerful ritual-- they had a symbolic sacrifice of John/Jane Barleycorn, and at the last minute I decided to stand in the inner circle to possibly be picked. Barleycorn is the one who has a very, very bad year coming up, but the community pledges to support hir in whatever way possible-- perhaps free massages, perhaps rides here and there, food, phone calls, hugs.

I did not get picked, but I was so afraid that I would or that I wouldn't, that I had tears welling up in my eyes. I think the person who did get picked had already had a couple of bad years. I hope she is doing well, and I did offer my support in whatever way I am able.

The berries here in MA are late by comparison to NC. They fruit in August, Lammas-time. I forgot when they were in NC, but I am pretty sure they were June-- maybe July. Things are off by a whole month here. Tomatoes are just showing up at farmer's markets, and corn. I already have been feeling Autumn in the air, for a couple of weeks now.

How is it by you?

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Changing Seasons

I almost forgot I had a blog.

I'm actually Doing Stuff this summer! I don't, normally. I don't do Summer Things like most people do, like, going to the beach, or swimming at the pool, or to picnics, or whatever.

But we did go back to Asheville for a week. Drove right down there, 2-1/2 days down, 2 days back, in the car, with a week there. The Boy went back to his survival camp that he's gone to for the past 4 years (5, now!), and loved it just as much as ever. I stayed with a friend while he was there, and went shopping at all the Poor Stores (scratch'n'dent, overstock, what-have-you) to load up my car, because, frankly, I don't think those kind of stores are allowed in Massachusetts. This new home of ours has lots of laws against most everything, compared to NC.
Also, we stayed with The Boy's best friend and his parents, who are my friends, for the first and the last weekend we were there.
We had a large time!
And yes, we both missed the mountains even more than we thought we had. How painfully breathtaking they are.

So here we are, back in MA, and the weather...I don't think I've had the A/C on more than twice! It's amazing. Tonight is already so cool, it's going to be lovely sleeping weather.

We've been yard saling, thrift shopping, tomorrow is a huge flea market, we spent Midsummer with some lovely folks at a place not far called Cauldron Farm, and we'll be spending Lammas with them, too. I can't believe Lammas is only a week away.

For the past 25 years, I have lamented the lack of winter so much that I assumed the last name of WinterHeart. I wonder if 24 years from now, I'll call myself SummerHeart instead?

Friday, June 20, 2014

Longest Day, Shortest Night

It's the Solstice!

I can hardly believe it. It hasn't got above 80* except maybe twice, and it's still down as low as 50* at night! Wow. In NC it's like 85* or more in the day, and I dunno at night...60-something?

We are going there in 6 days. Stopping to see cousins on the way, which is exciting! I can't wait, really. I miss the mountains absolutely acutely. I have mixed feelings-- there are things I lovelovelove about my new home here in MA, but it's rather flatter than NC, and not near as pretty. I love the climate here way better, and I love how liberal it is up here, and I love that nobody cares what religion I am, and I love that we get free (FREE!) healthcare. I do not love that there aren't mountains. I miss moving water-- as afraid of rivers as I am (for getting in), I love watching how alive they are.

I'm so mad at the political climate down there in NC that I can hardly breathe. It appears we got out of there just in time, and as much as my heart is still very much in the mountains, we can't go back. Can't afford to. Not financially, though there is that-- I meant NC is just not OK anymore. It's so broken.
We can't get health insurance, not even my kid (who knew ADHD is a pr-existing condition? and, who wouldn't insure a child?). The politics are insane; they're trying to go back to the dark ages with women and contraception and abortion and such, and, voting rights, and my goodness, the water pollution and fracking and all that...it's just awful. NC is beautiful, just absolutely breathtaking, but it's becoming a glamour, I'm afraid.

And the religion issue-- I can't believe we've been here in MA for a year and three days, and not ONE TIME, not once, has anyone asked what church I go to. Not once has anyone brought up religion as a topic. Not once in a meeting (I'm a 12-stepper, if I've not mentioned it) has anyone said "...My Higher Power, who I choose to call God (or Jesus)". It's lovely not having to justify myself. It's lovely not to get all passive-aggressive and say "My Higher Power, whom I choose to call Goddess"...on the other hand, I got so used to religion being the Topic du Jour that it's discombobulating not to have it mentioned....ever. Nice, but weird.
And at least I don't have to go to school board meetings here to keep the Bible out of my kid's school. Not.An.Issue!
He did have a course called Ancient Civilizations which is history, and they covered the Romans, Greeks, Egypt I think, and early Christianity, and when I asked him was the Jesus part more even with all the other parts of history, or was it emphasized as The One True Way, he said it was even with all the other parts, just a blip in history. LOVE! Exactly how it should be.

Still, I can't wait to go say hi.

Monday, June 9, 2014

There are wild roses growing next door. I don't remember them from last year, but in my old yard, the wild roses were short lived, and last year we moved here on June 17th. so maybe they were gone by then. They are beautiful! Such a treat. I took pictures. If I remember later, I will upload them! There's a gorgeous purple something growing next to. I took a pic of that, too. If someone can ID it for me, that'd be cool!

11 minutes till work, so this will be short.

2 weeks and 3 days till we go back to Asheville for a visit. I think I have The Boy almost all packed. Me, now, that's another story.
I'm pretty excited. But I am worried about KittyCat Meow....True Love said he would take care of him for us. I hope to heck KittyCat won't be traumatized with us being out of town for so long :(

Friday, May 30, 2014

Lovely thunderstorm!

I was unsure if I'd even get to post, for all the lightning that was going on out there! I haven't seen lightning in ages!

I actually got back to 5 minutes of meditation each of the last two days. It's not much, but it does help. I set the timer on my cell phone so I don't have to hear ticking from the kitchen timer and I don't have to think "When will this be over, when will this be over, how long have I been doing this...."....can you tell I'm a novice meditater (Meditator? How would one spell that?)? At any rate, even 5 minutes feels good, I tell ya.

Been posting to a Facebook page called The 2014 Gratitude Challenge. It does change my focus of each day to start out with an attitude of gratitude. I post most days.

I think my spiritual practice is changing a bit...not my religion, but my actual practice. It WAS self-blessing, meditate or prayer, journal, ground, shield...NOW it's ground and shield all the time, bless the water in the shower every day, thank the elements (in the shower-- it works, but I do most of my spiritual practice in the shower each morning), ask each morning for help staying sober and clean, and not tempted by things I don't need to be, remind myself to be kind and compassionate and hopefully humble, give thanks at night for all those things.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Spring is a'rollin' along

It's getting SO GREEN, here!

In the South, I was kind of like... well, as a Pagan I was like "Duh, Midsummer is called Midsummer for a reason-- it's the secular calendar that's wrong! It's not the first day of summer!"...for instance.

Well, up here in MA, it surely is a whole bunch of season behind Asheville. I think it's gotten above 70* all of three times thus far. Once it was 85* but the other two times was maybe 73*. I haven't checked the weather in Asheville but I wouldn't be surprised if it's full-on summer already.

Which, this weather is fine by me. I love it just a tad cooler. I am just fine at maybe 80* tops. I am loving this. Still 45ish at night.

I was reading up on witches and granny-women and magic here in New England...I think that they're much the same everywhere you go. As in, folk magics. Omens and signs and such, and little magics. Today, I saw a bird cross my path from left to right-- three separate times! I hear that is a good omen. I hope so.

And, my cat blessed me with three whiskers-- not all at once! But cat whiskers are good for traveling, because a cat can always find its way home, so I emptied out an Altoids tin and put them in there and today I put them in the car. I think I should take them back out and bless them somehow and then put them back in there. Also, I have hanging from my rearview a talisman that Byron Ballard made for me when I left Asheville. I am traveling back there in 5 or 6 weeks and I need to recharge that, somehow, too.

Random musings...I'm rather scattered today. But that's alright.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The skunk cabbage is rolled up and I now have two fat cigars of it, tied up with embroidery floss. It's still not drying much, and I hope it does not rot or mildew before it does. Well...it is an experiment after all.

Someone I know has a huge yardful of dandelions. Yesterday I snipped off a bunch of dandelion heads because I saw a recipe online on how to make a salve, or a bar that you use for dry skin, out of them. They're drying a bit in a 8x8 pan, so they don't mold in the oil that I'm going to next infuse them in.

I love nature. I love how it provides things we need, if only we look. A friend of mine posted on Facebook that dandelion is his favorite flower, and I chimed in that it's mine, too, and a comment said "I thought dandelion is a weed, not a flower?"
My answer to that was, "weed" is in the eye of the beholder. Tiny little suns all over my friend's yard. I saw a couple of beautiful honey-colored bees nipping and tasting at the dandelions. I made sure to leave plenty of them for the bees.
I'm thinking of getting a bee tattoo. Maybe.

Also, I got a peppermint plant and a rosemary plant, in pots. I haven't grown these things indoors before. Well, rosemary I tried to keep over the winter, and it did not last-- yum on salmon, anyway! I hope these last. I wonder if my peppermint gets big if it will proliferate outside in the back "yard".

On Beltane I had lots of plans-- was going to go to a semi-public ritual I heard about, but we got up late and slugged about, and then I got a badly upset stomach which lasted all day long. Good thing we didn't go, because their porta-pot got flooded, I hear.
This weekend, though, my new little group of 4 or 5 is having our Beltane ritual. I love how Beltane can last the whole month of May!

Blessed Beltane! Blessed summer.

Friday, May 2, 2014

And, I was right. Father Wiinter is indeed gone 'till next year. The weather right now is back and forth and back and forth...it rained HARD for the last couple days. Yesterday morning started out cold and chill and raw and rainy, and by the time the day was over, it was 60 and sunny.

I have to say, I love the seasons up here, so far. I am actually appreciating Spring for the first time in years. I mean really, really appreciating. Because I hate summer. And Asheville, while very lovely indeed, just more-or-less stopped having a true Winter, by the time we left it, and there were times it felt like it went right from late Autumn to Summer, by February.
Don't get me wrong-- I'm very much a mountain gal now, and I miss Asheville acutely most of the time-- but the weather here, I.just.love.it.

I am going to go down to the empty, overgrown lot on the corner and appropriate some forsythia for my kitchen table. The lot doesn't appear to belong to anybody. All the other forsythia is on people's front lawns. BAD idea, borrowing theirs!
And, there are daffodils everywhere! I love that the Earth has chosen bright yellow to herald the Springtime. It's such a banner color.

Here is what I did yesterday. I pulled over to the side of the road and got me some skunk cabbage leaves. I rolled them, kind of like a cigar, and tied them up with embroidery floss. I'm going to see if they'll work for smudge, once they dry. Yes, stinky...but local. Someone I knew in Asheville was talking about cultural appropriation, and the use of sage smudge came up, which is a SW USA thing, not here, so she was going to try to make smudge of rabbit tobacco, which is native to the WNC mountains. I should ask her how that went. So it occurred to me that what is abundant up here is skunk cabbage. And we'll see if and how it turns out!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Spring

It's rainy and raw, today. I love these chilly days. It's about 45* out there, and it was near to 70* yesterday...welcome, Spring!
It's not a whole lot different up here than in North Carolina. I venture to guess Spring happens in much the same way in the Eastern United States, though at different times.

Here, we are in growing season 5-something (b?). Western NC was 7-something. And Spring, I hear, is a couple weeks behind schedule. My friend sent me an email this morning that she just found baby nettles growing about a half hour south of here. I can't wait to go forage some! I wasn't thrilled with the nettle tea I made last year, but I'll deal. Nettle tea = Spring Tonic, and although I think it tastes much like the water left behind when boiling spinach, I will drink it anyway, and toast to the season.

It's hard to believe Beltane is upon us already, in only a week! My personal habit, Beltane morning, is to wash my face in the morning dew, to retain my youthful beauty. This year shall be no different, though I expect to rather have to hunt for a place for dew, unlike in Asheville when I just had to walk out my door into the backyard.

Ahh, Spring...welcome, new growth and rebirth. Father Winter has for sure gone into hiding, until next year; I'm sure of it.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Holy Days

It is the day before Easter. As a Pagan, my main holy day is Ostara, but I appreciate and honor all paths to the Divine as valid, and as a child I was raised Episcopalian-- those roots don't go away. I love all religions and I am fascinated with each and every one. We go to a Christian church on Easter, usually Episcopalian.

When we lived in Asheville, we went to the Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore. What a  beautiful church that is! And Reverend (Father?) Todd Donatelli is the coolest person. I've seen him at interfaith things, and at the board meetings to push to get all religions equal treatment (or NO treatment, really) in the public schools, which is a Big Deal in the South, let me tell you. Up here in Massachusetts, it's a refreshing break not to talk about religion all.the.time. Nobody mentions it at all!

But one thing I realized out of all that religious talk down there is, I love talking about it. Not contentiously, but in a "I do God this way, how do you?". Because I find it so interesting. I don't find any of them wrong. Here is what I believe: There are many paths up the mountain, as it were. Many paths. Some go winding and meandering around, some go straight up...you get my meaning. But they're all striving to reach the top. It's the striving that counts.

Back when I was first interested in Paganism, I met a woman who identified as a Celtic Christian. I was confused enough with all the new Pagan paths I was discovering, but what was this? She told me that she honored all the Old Ways, but she couldn't give up Jesus Christ as her lord and savior. Weird, to me, but cool. Anyway, she once told me that "If you aren't in love with your religion, you're not doing it right". That really stuck with me, and I believe it, too. I don't believe in lip service only, to the Divine(s)...I believe in jumping in all the way.

So here I sit on the eve of the most reverent Holy Day in the Christian traditions, honoring Jesus' path to enlightenment, as it were....as a Witch. And I really don't see any contradiction in that.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

The tide is turning. I can feel it. Spring is definitely in the air.

There's still feet of snow on the ground, only less, because it was over 40* for two days and then it rained, so now there's feet of snowbanks covered in ice (only you wouldn't know it's ice till you get right up close and personal with it). The back "yard" has lots less in it, and I can actually see grass patches!

There's supposed to be new snow this coming week, and this week has seen temperatures once again in the single digits at night and 20s in the day, but...I can feel it. I can feel it. I can SMELL it. Spring.

I have three friends and a relative with birthdays this week, and one almost-brother-in-law who has an Equinox birthday. I can't believe that Ostara is only three weeks away! My new Pagan friends and I are planning a small ritual. I'm pretty excited to be Doing Ritual with other people! We did go to a couple of public family events but they were rather geared toward much younger children than mine, and while we did have fun, we had to travel umpteen miles to go to them. I want stuff to happen right here in my town, and this city is twice the population of Asheville, so, there's no excuse...I am going to sniff out the Pagans somehow. I found three. Now to find more.

My personal life is looking up. True Love and I are working out the kinks of having me actually BE here, in the same town, instead of our relationship being some Utopian thing that Doesn't Exist Yet except in our imaginations. It's Real and getting Realer. Which is wonderful, and sometimes not so wonderful, because nothing is ever up to the Utopian standards we hold ourselves to! And, things are getting better. You know you have a good relationship when things can be talked out, worked out, and we still love each other super duper lots.

The Sentinals that guard the parking lot of our building have lost their snowy mittens. They had shelves of snow that rather resembled chicken mushrooms. And I am seeing squirrels again, and a bird this morning. I think the sparrows really did go south a bit. I can't wait till they come back. I miss the crows terribly. Ain't no crows here on this property. True Love has them at his place across town, and I bought a crow-caller, but I feel like an eejit blowing that thing outdoors.

Working on grounding and shielding more often and more frequently throughout the day. I do feel the better for it.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

More snow!

We're supposed to get another foot, on top of the one that's already out there. It's coming down hard. The Boy has a snow day today. I am supposed to work tomorrow, in Northborough, and go to a workshop for work after my shift...we shall see! If I can drive, I shall go. I need the money.

I'm not feeling awfully Witchy lately...I am having a hard time in my personal life, and I know that connecting to my Witchy self would really help in that direction...but it's hard to do that when I'm feeling so low.

I had promised, last year, to keep up a Daily Practice, including meditation, self-blessing, grounding and centering, journaling. I have slacked off hard, with those things.
Yesterday I did smudge and do my self-blessing, and I did feel all the better for it. I have been grounding and shielding wherever and whenever I can-- the Short Version, lol!-- but it does help.

This water-poisoning in West Virginia, and now the coal sludge crapola in NC, is really getting to me. I am impotent and helpless and the best I can do, here in MA with no money to send, is to thank and bless the water that comes out of my tap every time I shower in the mornings. I am remembering my gratitude with the things that most people take for granted. I am picking up another three-liter jug of water when I go to the store, in case it's our turn next to have poisoned water. This is an outrage, and in my mind, terrorist acts by our own people...well...corporations, sanctioned by our own governments...if these acts happened *to* us by other countries, we'd be on it like white on rice. I could go on and on, but I shall not...in the meanwhile, I am thankful for what I have, and for my boy's health and my True Love's health, and for clean water and breathable air. Thank you, thank you.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Random New-Blog Musings

Here is my family: Me. The Boy, just turned 13 years old. True Love, who just asked me to marry him on my this-past-birthday, in November (I said YES!). And our newest family member: Hobbes, the 7 year old kitty-cat-meow that I got for The Boy for his birthday, from the rescue shelter.

Hobbes came to us on January 19th. He seemed to acclimate really well really fast, which is a wonderful thing, because he was surrendered from his old family, where he was for his whole 7 years, because, get this-- he was going outside his box. Because the family got a new baby (understandable), AND a new cat and a new dog. So they gave up on Hobbes. I am heartbroken whenever I think about this!
So Hobbes started going outside his box HERE, pee only, over the last 3 days or so, and I took him to the vet ($189...on a credit card...sigh) and they said nothing's wrong. Nothing in the lab work. Turns out, I think, that besides being kind of a nervous kitteh, he suddenly decided he didn't like his litter anymore.
Got new litter and put in a few more boxes and he peed in both, so *cross fingers*...I really don't like the upheaval, either, having to not have bathroom rugs because it is bloody COLD on the bare tootsies on a tile floor when it's 11*F outside.

I digress...I am supposed to be (according to me) writing about my Craft, being a Witch, moving from NC to MA...so, it's Winter here. Full-on Winter. |
Asheville, NC, barely has a winter anymore. From what I hear, they actually Got Snow this year, but if you ask me, it's more or less the first time since '09 when we got like two feet and the whole world shut down for a week while Buncombe County tried to figure out what to do with all that snow.

Here, mostly, people don't even bat an eye. There were THREE plows on my street the other day. Granted, I'm not on a major street, so they don't get to it till mostly later in the day or the next day, but they do plow, and they do salt, and they do sand. Buncombe County, I hear, has just four plows for the whole county. My thru-street rarely got plowed or sanded. So this is kind of a novelty, watching people here get rid of snow just as fast as it can come down.

The what-passes-for-a-backyard (I live in the city-- rare green spaces, this) is covered in feet of snow, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. I have a bird feeder but I haven't seen anybody in awhile. There are six giant pine trees (The Sentinals) guarding the parking lot of the 3-decker that we live in. I haven't seen the birdies that nest in those, either, in awhile. I wonder if birds go away altogether, here, in the cold, cold season. I would, if I had itty-bitty feet.

I am finally meeting local Pagans! On the 15th of this month, I am meeting with three members of the UU church we go to, to plan an Ostara ritual. Four people...well, that's one for each quarter, provided they do that...they've been meeting for awhile and I am the outsider, so I shall have to hush and see how they do things.
I really, REALLY miss Mother Grove http://www.mothergroveavl.org/ the organization I used to go to their open rituals in Asheville. If I'd stayed there, I would have probably been getting lots more involved. I have to find my footing here. I have to. I miss my tribe, I really do.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Merry Meet, world wide web folks! Yes, this is new, but it's a continuation of a blog I had at another site, only the other one didn't allow comments and since I got brave enough to put my thoughts out there in public, it would have been kind of nice to not just have "followers", but "commenters". So here I am.

Anyway, my family moved to MA from NC in June of 2013, and I can't believe we've been here over 7 months already!
Still getting used to living in the NorthEast after being in the South since 1988. Lived on the Outer Banks for 14 years and then Asheville until last year. I feel like I've moved to another country, with the accents up here! I dunno if I will ever get used to the New England accent.

I shall have to continue this later. I just wanted to set it up, for now.
So here I am. Weird photo, this!