Apr
19
Beautiful colors the other evening,
silhouetting the budding trees,
and soon after that,
a waxing crescent moon against the bright blue sky.
shared with:
Apr
14
Apr
13
serene garden pond
koi drift below the surface
heron poises near
Inspired too late by the prompt “Koi Pond” from:
Apr
11
Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
my new camera making me love it even more, this was taken through the window of the hide, from across the lake, tracking while in flight, on a very overcast day
Shared with:
Apr
10
a lone sunbeam made it through the thick blustery clouds to light up a distant whitecap
Shared with:
Apr
10
This week’s theme is: Imagination
basement library
shelving my Stephen King books
lightning flash; darkness
Thankfully, my power did not go out this afternoon. An impressive thunderstorm did brew up while I was putting books away – stark lightning, crashing thunder, pounding rain (hail?). Enough to spook the cats, at which point I came back upstairs because my imagination was having a field day.
Also, NaPoWriMo #5
Apr
6
back wheels touch earth smooth
playful wind gust sends skidding
nose down brings relief
Apr
2
roaring power fades
clouds below and stars above
journey-quest begins
I did not get a picture of this part of the journey. I’ve been lectured on my failure to take pertinent photos, but there will be many otters and birds to come later.
Feb
5
Candlemas
Imbolc
Brigantia
The cross-quarter fire festival marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox
In this, the deepest of winter, the promise of spring begins to awaken. A trickle of life-giving liquid begins to flow. At the heart of the sleeping trees, a magical mystery appears. The sap begins to rise.
Continued…
Jan
29
Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
Despite the bird-feeder induced pudge on this furry guy, he still fits in that hole behind him on the trunk of the tree.
Jan
28
Blogs
Whereas last week my topic focused on books, this week I bring up a more new-fangled way of reading. I love my books, I always will. Nothing beats a hard-copy in your hands, the feel of the paper, the smell of the pages. However, in this technological age, even most of my reading now gets done on the computer. With the rise of online publishing came blogs, ranging from personal opinions to factual accounts, in every voice and bias imaginable, on every subject for which you can search, with up-to-the-minute information and current events.
I found Pagan Blog Project last year while searching for good witchy blogs to peruse. What a treasure trove! I hope to add many new links to my must-read list through the blog hop this year. Remembering that you may have to search through a lot of rubble to find the gems, here are a couple other spots to find lists of interesting blogs:
Jan
22
Jan
18
Books
Last night at the Steel Phoenix Writers Meeting at Barnes & Noble, we brainstormed for my topic for this week’s PBP post. Bats, Bast, broomcloset, beginnings, bodywork, belief, … and yet the answer surrounded us, books. Do we all gather books? I remember my initial chain of books, like a pathway into the woods. A breakup with a boyfriend in college led me to want to read something with no men – Jean Stewart’s Return to Isis
Continued…
Jan
12
Affirmations
This week I write about something that I sorely need to reincorporate into my practice: daily affirmations.
Why is it so easy to believe the negative?
Tim Minchin is an amazing musician, comedian, and actor. During his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, he received rave reviews, packed halls, and eventually the award of Best Newcomer. Rave reviews except for one incredibly damning review by Phil Doust of The Guardian. Minchin said it took him years before he could make it through an entire performance without the doubt caused by that one review creeping in. (Information obtained from the documentary Rock & Roll Nerd)
If something is repeated often enough, we’ll believe it; it must be true.
Fox News runs on this philosophy. “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers” was my favorite quote from last year’s presidential race.
When you combine these two into negative self talk, the results can be literally depressing. I’ve seen suggestions online that up to 75% of a person’s self talk is often negative. Daily affirmations are a way to reprogram our subconscious to a more positive outlook. The purposeful repetition affirms the chosen positive thought, cementing it into belief.
Jan
10
I received a new camera for Christmas! My parents got me a Nikon D5100. I also got strep throat for Christmas! bleh But that left me with time to play with the camera and watch Mom’s bird feeder.
I had to look up to see if goldfinches stayed around through the winter. I guess I just never recognized them in their duller winter feathers.
Jan
9
This week’s theme is: Photograph
with camera’s click
an instant of life captured
memories preserved
I received a new camera for Christmas, a Nikon D5100! Hoping to hit the photo memes hard over the next few months as I figure out all of its bells and whistles.
Jan
7
Finally made a list of the challenges I want to attempt this year.
Blogging Challenges:
What is The Pagan Blog Project? (The Short Answer)
This project is a way to spend a full year dedicating time each week very specifically to studying, reflecting, and sharing your spiritual and magickal path. The project consists of a single blog post each week posted on your blog each Friday for the year of 2012 that will involve a topic that relates to Paganism, Witchcraft, magick, spirituality, and so on. You can use your posts to share your views on a topic, to talk about your own personal experiences, or to act as a catalyst to research a subject that you may not know much about and then share what you learn and how you feel about that. Each week there is a specific prompt for you to work with in writing your post, a prompt that will focus on a letter of the alphabet each week providing you a framework for your writing as well as a common thread for all participants to share in.
NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.
NaPoWriMo was founded in 2003, when poet Maureen Thorson decided to take up the challenge (modeled after NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), and challenged other poets to join her. Since then, the number of participants has gotten larger every year, and many writers’ organizations, local, national and even international, organize NaPoWriMo activities.
Reading Challenges:
Continued…
Jan
4
Now that my website is back up and running after a blip that took out most of December, I need to sit down and figure out what challenges and such I’m going to attempt this year. One of them will definitely be the Pagan Blog Project. The PBP asks for posts every Friday, with prompts being the letters of the alphabet, two weeks to a letter. Most of my posts will most likely be, or at least include, poetry, as that is how my brain works. So here we start with A.
So many options for A! animism, ancestor worship, air, altars, Artemis, … but for this first post, I chose one of the most important aspects of life, to me.
Animals
Dec
5
This week’s theme is: Avarice
by dawn on Thursday
mad rush for Black Friday deals
Thanksgiving denied
I cashier over the winter during the slow time at the zoo. I usually voluntarily work opening of Black Friday, which for Target this year was 9 PM on Thanksgiving night. (Kmart opened at 6 AM Thanksgiving morning.) It’s fun watching the crazy people jam through the doors with their sleeping bags and chairs and tents (safety note: Target always has police on hand for the opening, so the mobbing doesn’t get dangerous.) Although running from turkey dinner at my parents, to turkey dinner at DrQuuxum’s parents, trying to take a nap after the second dinner, then running for work, does not make for a very restful holiday.
