Wednesday, June 25, 2008

all hail the holly king

well, the summer solstice has come and gone.

i will admit that i didn't take as much notice of it as i usually do, for a variety of reasons. firstly, we had just returned from traveling, and you know how traveling changes linear time- it's very hard to hang on to what day or time it really is. at least for me, it always is. so, the solstice snuck up on me.
also, on the night of, when we had been planning to go to caya's celebration, it had been beastly hot all day, and the thought of gathering in an upper room with no fans or a/c with a whole bunch of people was just a bit off-putting. so, oh well.

seems the universe wanted me to notice it though- on midsommer day, i went to my local elephant pharmacy to buy some allergy tea (no word on whether it works yet or not- i keep forgetting to drink it). the gentleman who helped me greeted me with "happy solstice", which i was happy to respond to in kind, and proceeded to tell me about how for an hour that afternoon about lunchtime, there had been a rainbow all the way around the sun. he wanted to know if i had seen it, which i hadn't, and so he described it as a sort of pale sundog, but one that formed a ring around the sun. fascinating!
we then agreed that we had no idea what that might mean, but that combined with the full moon the previous night, it could only mean strong energy.
"yes", he said, " and heaven knows we need that kind of energy in our world right now".
too right, my friend.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

midsommer musings

so, here it is, june the whateverth. 12th? i think? and here i sit, wasting time on the wonderful web.
a few things have been on my mind of late, so i throw them out for your consideration.

1) so i'm trying to write a book. technically, i'm trying to write a lot of books. (i blame my friends who got me into nanowrimo for that- damn you!) but really, there's only one i take even halfway seriously. and that's this one that i'm working on that's sort of a guidebook to being pagan for "people like me". more on that later. but, in any case, it's kind of overwhelming me at the moment. me being me, i have it all outlined. completely. all the chapters are accounted for, and i have sub-sections for each chapter, and i have gone through most of my library and sticky-tabbed things that i want to make sure and include (yes, i am a grad student. doesn't show at all, does it?).
but as far as the actual WRITING part of it goes, i'm a little stuck. it feels very very strange to write in my own voice (having written so many papers where information is predominant over voice). and i have a hard time imagining that anyone would want to read it. and that frustrates me.
so i don't know. i want to work on it...

2) summer diet. boo. boooo..... sad thora.
i am what could generously called "goddess figured". the problem is that i would prefer to be a little closer to the "maiden" end of the spectrum...
sigh . day three of the "my body is a temple. should i really be putting that in my mouth?" diet. resolution is high, but morale is low. i had a lapse this morning and had macaroni and cheese for breakfast (i know, it's gross. this is what grad school does to you, people), but i restrained myself and only had half the amount i normally would have. so that's progress. last night was good- cian and i had salmon burgers on whole wheat buns and spinach salad with tomatoes, strawberries, and kalamata olives.
point of interest- if you drizzle some honey mustard dressing over a strawberry and a kalamata olive, and then eat them both at once, it's surprisingly amazing. you should try it.

3) summer. summer, summer, summer. i am in love with summer. deep, mad, passionate, love. this may be at least partially a product of being out of school, but who cares. i've always loved summer. this year is no exception. mmmmm.....summer.....

4) it is the one year anniversary of cian and i discovering our coven, CAYA. we had been sort of wanting to find a group to practice with- we're both largely solitary practicioners, and that's fine, but it's nice to have a group for the holidays. so we found caya on the web, and decided to give them a chance. i was nervous, because i am an introvert, so strange people make me nervous, especially in large groups. but it was awesome! we had such a good time. and we've kept going back all year. if you're in the bay area, you should stop by and check it out.

5) i'd like to get more "out there" on the web. i'm not especially well networked, i think, and i'd like to be. i'm working on this book, and i have a website i'm getting up on which i will be selling jewelry and potions and prayer beads and so on that i would like to get some publicity for. so i need to figure out how to circulate more, as it were.
besides, talking to other folks is always interesting!

pax,
thora