More Prayers Please

If so inclined please add my friend Denise to your prayers.  She was told yesterday she needs another round of chemo for her Leukemia.  It is not great news but there was improvement and so here is hoping the second will do the trick.  Denise is a feisty little woman that is one to give her all to someone in need.  She has a lot of prayer warriors behind her but a few more never hurts.

Thank you/Miigwetch

What I Love About My Space

For the first time since I rented my own place 30 years ago I have my own space...my own room...my own level of this house if I so choose.  As in introvert this is something I have so desperately missed in my life.  It is like my own magickal place where it smells good, is filled with only my things and I feel I can breathe and truly relax.  This is just an impromptu list off the top of my head.

It is on the second story...up in the trees with the birds!  I love that!

I can see far vistas unlike when downstairs.

The energy is so fabulous, like a love filled cocoon.

It is mine.  None of my husband's crap is allowed, period!!!

I have no one to clean up after but myself.

I can hear the rain on the roof.

I hear owls hooting without the windows having to be open!

I have given up television.  I do not miss it.  For the record I do have a portable DVD player and a radio/CD player.  I listen to a lot more music now.  And Wisconsin Public Radio.

Tabby (my cat) seems to love it also.

Mourning Doves sit on the roof and I can hear their gentle cooing.

I can be in my under garments or less without being harassed.

It is my own sanctuary.

No one questions my altar. (because they don't see it)

No judgement.  If I want to work on art for hours no one is snorting their disapproval as to how I am spending my time.

Freedom to be myself.

Writing Thoughts

This is a painting I bought last week.  It just really spoke to me.  Water, stone, lilies, a pair.  The colors are lovely and I look forward to hanging it in my meditation space.

Both our boys have left home which at first left a huge vacuum in my life.  There my husband and I stared at each other.  He barely says two words to me all week and I haven't a whole lot to say to him so it is very awkward.  I have since adjusted somewhat of course, well...still adjusting as it is like I realize husband and I have little to nothing in common anymore.  I am trying to come to terms with it.

But I have adjusted probably too much for our boy's liking, ha ha.  I have taken over one of their bedrooms for my own space and am using it to go through all my collections and crap I've saved like a wintering squirrel.  It is time to let all this "stuff" go.  It is a slow process because as I release I need to mourn.

The other bedroom has remained mostly untouched.  I want to get rid of the desk and sofa in there and my kid needs to move his bed out that he brought in to store until he and his girlfriend got another place.  There are 2 1/2 beds in there and they need to go.  So I am waiting on that somewhat.  Another part of me hates to tear his car pictures etc. off the wall.  It just seems so final, you know?  Yes, I am a sentimental witch.  Sigh.

BUT I also want that space for my art room, exercise room and meditation room although the other room may stay my meditation room.  I now sleep up here because of my other half.  He snores and yet won't move out so I had to for my sanity.  20+ years of not sleeping made me think I am a candidate for sleeping drugs but alas, moving out of that space has done wonders for me.  Like somehow losing 25#.  Like magic.  So when you hear sleep deprived gain weight believe it!

I took off this Friday and Saturday as I was to go to an Elderwoman conference that was actually within 2 hours of me!  Well, as it turns out it was cancelled due to lack of interest :(.  Most the activities done are in the southern part of the state which requires a long stinky drive and a few days off so this really was something I was looking forward to.  I sometimes get really lonely here.  I have my card making group and my job but no real close women friends locally and being an outsider here I don't feel as though I fit in.  Everyone here is very Christian so that is another thing I feel I need to not express.  It gets lonely.

So now I have a three day weekend and weather is to be shit of course.

Happy New Year

So much has changed  since I was last here...some for the better and some for the not so much.  But alas, that is life isn't it?

We had snow and 3 1/2" of rain last week and this week so far has been near 70 degrees!  It is lovely and I am trying to catch up on all my outdoor work that has slid the past few months/years.  It is not pretty.  I am determined to make this yard easier to contend with and to put my vision into action whether or not my other half agrees.  I am the one who has to take care of it so it is time to make it easier.

I am now working 6 days a week and it has been a very hard adjustment for me.  I am a morning soul and now my best hours are given to my job and home gets what is left over.  I have developed arthritis in my knee and so that has slowed me down.  Challenges.

I have also retaken up my art, mostly in art journaling right now.  Art was something I hung up over 10 years ago and just gave away all my supplies.  I didn't think I'd ever do it again.  But I was wrong and it brings me great joy and challenge and a voice when I am not feeling heard or cared about.

I had two friends tragically killed in accidents to remind me how precious this life is.  My precious dog has been put down due to cancer and I miss him greatly.  I don't think I'll be getting another dog. This is the first year in 25 years that I have not had an Australian Shepherd to trip over.  But right now I do not have the time or energy required to work with another one.

Right now I am praying/holding ceremony for a friend with cancer.  If you wish please send healing energies and prayers to Denise.  Thank you.

Tamarack, Muckigwatig (swamp tree)

Tamaracks are one of my favorite trees in the autumn. They are a deciduous conifer, meaning that they drop their needles in fall. Their change of color is so dramatic that it just takes my breath away. Tamaracks have a lot of uses going way back including medicine, for weaving storage sacks, making canoes and decoys. It is otherwise called the swamp tree.  Its sap can be chewed and is as sweet as maple sugar.  Muckigwatig is the Ojibwe name for this tree.

I Am Back

Wow, well, wasn't that fun :).  My sweet netbook is now back to her old self and actually better since they gave her a dusting and tune-up.

I have been working my "paying" job which is one that I can get called in on a whim.  I had four days this week, still have Saturday and maybe Monday, then a few days off until I work the whole week of Thanksgiving from Saturday before to the Saturday after.  It is a nice little boost to the savings account if I get to hang onto it.

Our "local" new bookstore opened after the loss of our Borders book store.  Wow, what a blow considering it was the only "real" bookstore in over an hour drive in any direction!  We have lots of bookstores but they are all run by Mennonites and as fun as it is to read their books (and I do) it isn't exactly what I am always after.

Well, now we have BAM, otherwise known as Books-A-Million.  I stopped in there last Sunday and actually found a small section under "new age" of Witchy books.  I purchased two!  One is "The Small-Town Pagan's Survival Guide" which is a fun read though it being new it is still a little outdated with websites and such.  But that is the way of it, isn't it in this day and age?  I still am thoroughly enjoying it.  And recognizing a "local" from Witchvox.

Second book is "The Path of a Christian Witch". I just started reading it.  It intrigued me because this gal is/was a Catholic so I am very interested in her view on the parallels of the two practices.

BAM is having a grand opening sale on Saturday with 20% off on top of the 10% I already get (I bought into their rewards because, sorry, but I am a book junkie!) so I am really anxious to get there right after work.  It is a long hour drive but goodness, books...

Witchy Moos

Just had to take a photo of the card I embellished for my pen pal.  A little late for Halloween but as we all know, witchy wishes happen all year 'round ;).