Sunday 5 June 2016

What I Did Last Samhain... and Plans Going Forward

Bright Blessings and Warm Greetings to you, dear reader!

We are now at the beginning of June, and thus the beginning of Winter here in Australia. We have had a few nice cold days, which have been lovely. It doesn't get freezing here, but I love to pull the jeans, jumpers, boots and scarves out of the closet.

My daughter Adele was born on the 6th of April, and I have been somewhat quiet on my blog and in the IDGAF community ever since (understandably, I suppose). She is now 2 months old. I will have to blog about my birth story sometime on my other blog, but I won't do that here, except to say she and I are both doing well and we are settling into life as a family of four.

I have been having some trouble finding time to read, but also having trouble concentrating on what I'm reading and retaining the information. However, I think that is changing... I have a cold at the moment, which I think has slowed me down, and on the weekend I got the chance read a relationship book called The Five Love Languages. I then went on to read some of the book Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle, which I am finding a wonderful read. I discovered the work of T. Thorn Coyle a couple of years ago when I was right into listening to podcasts and I came across her Elemental Castings Podcast. At first I thought the whole Feri/Reclaiming thing wasn't for me, but surprisingly to me I really loved her podcast and I now have massive respect for her work. I have already read another of her books, Kissing the Limitless, and I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, mostly in terms of the positive perspective on life that she fosters, her focus on discipline and diligent regular (if not daily) spiritual practice and her compassion and commitment to service of the planet and those less fortunate (in any small way that's possible for you).

So far, in reading Evolutionary Witchcraft I have read about some practices that are vastly different to what I have done in the past, which I am looking forward to trying out. She also endorses some very simple practices (such as meditating in the shower and visualising washing away your cares), which are great for busy people. I firmly believe that even if you're a busy person that doesn't mean you can't practice the craft or be spiritual... especially when you can make small things sacred and make every moment magical and special as much as possible. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book, and also reading Ritualcraft by Amber K. I really want to get better at formal ritual, although at present with my time constraints I have a very free-flowing practice that is working well for me.

In the month of April here in Australia we celebrate ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), and my husband and I took the kids to a Parade. I find this very much in the spirit of Samhain, just in terms of honoring the dead and the sacrifices they made and paying our respects. At Samhain I made a pilgrimage to my local cemetery, where I took a long meditative walk (it's a large cemetery that backs onto a beautiful park), photographed some water lilies that were growing in a nearby lake, and collected some dirt from atop a grave (for which I left an offering of patchouli leaves from my garden).


That night, I made tacos for dinner, with homemade guacamole and we ate together as a family. Everyone didn't stay silent in the tradition of the dumb supper, mainly because we need to prompt my young son to eat! I left the graveyard dirt at my altar with my other graveyard dirt, and lit candles. I have been running low on black candles. Luckily I picked up some cute little black chime candles half price from Loot Homewares the last time my husband and I went there. What an awesome find! They will be really great for my workings (and for next Samhain if I have any left). I use black candles rather frequently, to release negativity.

I am very much looking forward to Yule, and to continuing my reading. Because of my concentration issues, I can't always read. I can however listen to podcasts, watch people on YouTube and read the odd blog post here and there, so that I am always learning, always thinking and growing and evolving as much as possible. I am planning some gifts for notable people in my life in keeping with the Yule Tradition. I may just bake cookies (which I haven't done since I was still pregnant)! I have been limiting my time on social media, since it can be such a time waster that takes up time I could be doing other important things (reading, gardening, spending time with the kids, keeping the house clean and staying on top of chores), as well as having face-to-face interactions with people, which I am trying to increase. As a mother with small children a lot of my face-to-face interactions are with other mums with babies, talking about poo. Needless to say, I like to balance this with anything at all not related to poo. Haha!

My mother-in-law has been unwell recently, she has commenced smoking again and is on the brink of pneumonia, so I am staying away while I have a cold. Fortunately she has a marvellous friend of the family staying with her at the moment and helping to care for her. I'm not happy about the smoking thing, and neither is my husband, but I guess it's her life and we have to accept that she's going to do what she wants to do. I may have contributed to her stress by arguing with my sister-in-law (in a spat that has mostly now been resolved), but ultimately she made the decision to pick up the cigarettes again. I just hope we still have a matter of months left with her and not weeks. We love her to bits.

Yesterday I was going to stay home and just read more, but my husband talked me into going to the annual Eco Fest held at the Tondoon Botanic gardens (where we got married 6 years ago). I'm glad we went. I always enjoy seeing the stalls and learning more about how we can look after our environment. The highlight was meeting Costa Georgiardis (a television presenter from the show Gardening Australia) and hearing him talk.

His talk was very interesting, he talked about our values regarding buying food, and went on to talk about community gardens and teaching young people and kids about food gardening.

Hopefully I'll get through the next few months and be OK. It's almost election time here, which always gives me the shits because I don't like being lied to or not having viable options.

Thank you for reading. Blessed be!

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