Post A Pic (Pagan Insights Project)

The sound of a stream or waterfall has always taken me to a peaceful place in my mind and I find I am able to relax and let my worries flow away.

Lower Ammonoosuc Falls in Carroll, NH

Pagan Pride Day (Pagan Blog Prompt)

I have attended one pagan pride day since coming out of the broom closet and I would love to attend another.  It always works out that the one here in New Hampshire falls on a day where I worked 12 hours the night before.  Considering the closest event to me is 3 hours away, I do not think that driving that far after no sleep is a good idea.  The one I attended years ago was a fun thing, I met Dana Eilers, and she autographed my copy of “Pagans and the Law”.  This was a huge deal for me. 

For me, Pagan Pride days are a good way to meet new people of the same mindset.  Living in extreme northern New Hampshire is not conducive to finding new witches.  They are open to the public, which gives our community the opportunity to show that we are just normal people.  Then there is the gate fee of a non-perishable food item that goes to the local food bank or other charity, which helps those who are less fortunate and have fallen on hard times.  What is not good about that? 

Attending a PPD gives me the chance to get out and find some things I do not have access to in my neck of the woods, and searching out stores in this area is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  I plan to stock up on things like herbs, incense, and charcoal tabs when I go this year.  I found some tabs that were made without saltpeter the last one I went to in Massachusetts and would love to find more.  I can attend workshops on subjects and get to ask questions of a real person.  If there is a ritual, I will be able to get in on that as well. 

I guess for me, PPD is the one time a year where I feel like a part of a community and not so much of a lone wolf all on my own.

Witch vs. Wiccan (part of the Pagan Insights Project)

I have recently been pondering the Rede and found myself not quite agreeing with the most famous portion of it.  You know, the whole “…and it harm none, do as ye will” thing.  I just cannot follow that to the letter.  If someone threatens me or mine, I will go all Southern on them and then pay back is a bitch.  So, I got to thinking, if that makes me not Wiccan, just what am I?

I know that I count myself as a witch, I believe in spells and I have proof that they work.  Yet there are some that say witchcraft is not a religion per se.  I do not follow any one path, having been exposed to many when I started out.  I could count myself as eclectic, but eclectic what?  

My patron goddess is Hera, so I guess be default I could start there, but again that is simply a pantheon, not a religion. I do not feel called to Asatru, which is the only other “religion” that comes to mind.  Maybe, I am just over analyzing this and it is fairly simple. 

What else is out there besides Wiccan?  If you have any suggestions, I’m open to hearing them please let me know.

Catching up!

I was wandering around not too long ago and I found this site that is hosting the Pagan Insights Project.  After contemplating it for a few days, I decide to join in.  So head on over to The Pagan Insights Project if you are curious to see what it is all about.

Basically, it is five prompts that are mixed media.  You can do them all at once, one a week, all of them every month, or whatever your little heart desires.  I think they are great prompts to do every so often to get me thinking about what is going on in my magical life.  I think that hardest one for me will be either the Action, Action or the Eureka! prompts, although I hope these will light a fire under my ass.

In other news, I may be having a bit of time on my hands soon.  I have a full-thickness rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder and my need surgery on it.  I have to see the surgeon and am waiting on his office to call me and set up a time for the appointment.  I just want to have something done soon because I can't lift my arm up over my shoulder without severe pain and trying to sleep is getting difficult.  I  may end up sleeping in the reclining end of the couch soon in order to get any sleep at all.  That should prove interesting on the days after I work, sleeping in the living room with the boys running around. 

I am going to be a MeeMaw again.  Caitlin informed us recently that she is pregnant.  I am really disappointed, I thought she would be more careful.  To top it all off, the jack-off she is pregnant by is a controlling bastard.  I think it might have been better received if it had not have been him.

I know that I have another blog dedicated to my weight loss and  there isn't a lot of posts on it, but I have to brag here for those who do not follow me there as well... I am down 12 pounds now and still going!!!  Yea, me!  My health care provider put me on this injectable diabetic medication that has the side effect (?) of producing weight loss.  To me that is no a side effect, it is an added bonus.  LOL  Well, it works for me and I only wish it wasn't so expensive.  :(

The boys are having fun, but they both cannot wait until school starts again.  Liam will be going to all day kindergarten and Zander starts with Mrs. Garneau and Mrs. Smith for his two days a weeks early childhood.  He is SO excited, although he is already counting to 15, knows all his colors, shapes, numbers and letters.  He is even starting in on easy addition.  That is a benefit to having an older brother!  Although they do fight most of the time.

That is all for now, but I will be starting in on the posts for the PIP soon, so keep an eye out!

Change in perspective

This is not a book review, but it is about a book series.

I do not know if the Fifty Shades craze has hit other parts of the country (although I have seen mention on Pinterest about the best man to play Christian Grey, so I think it has).  I am not one to read books that are “bodice rippers” anymore.  I did read my fair share in the past, but I have

not really read those for close to 5 or 6 years now.  However, the buzz around work for the series was becoming incessant, so I caved. 

Sure, there is quite a bit of sex in the series, and the bulk of it in the first book is about BDSM.  Nevertheless, as a witch with a variety of friends with “alternative” lifestyles, it was not anything of which I had never heard. So, what kept me reading the books?  I wanted to know what had happen to that little boy that made Fifty the way he was. 

See, to me the books were not so much about the sex; they were about the ease in which a person’s childhood can really fuck them up.  It is a story of how this man had endured some horrific beginnings and was still able to find love.  Yes, I know these were fictional, but tell me you cannot see it happening in real life. 

It also makes me think about those people that others have given up on.  What do we know about the circumstances that have made them what they are today? 

Maybe that man who makes you cringe every time he comes into the emergency room was abused as a child and he had no one to show him that they cared.  Could it be that this is his way of getting a little bit of gentle attention? 

That woman that keeps having kids?  She may have never anyone to hug her and she is trying to feel that little scrap of unconditional love that comes from an infant. 

SO many people out there have had something in their lives that screwed them up so badly that they struggle to fit in with the rest of society.  These books have made me stop and look at my life and I realized that, while my life was not the ideal, I could have had it much worse.