Restart

It's nearing a year since I began doing a year and a day's worth of study. Of course that journey was derailed by the simultaneous journey of welcoming the Jelly Bean into our lives. For whatever reason the Bean was conceived in the same week that I started my studies and as the pregnancy went on with the morning sickness and tiredness and then the uncomfortableness of carrying a lot of extra weight and the aches and pains on top of all the extra appointments with doctors and specialists and personal emotional and family dramas; study took a backseat and then just exited the car all together.

While I'm not looking to take a year and a day (more like as long as it takes to get it done) I'm going to restart the journey. Fortunately for me there are a few more online resources to help out and I'm going to take full advantage of them. My goals are still the same, I'm looking to incorporate creativity into my practice and with my hands full of Peanut and Bean things I can't be doing things with hard and fast deadlines. I'm just looking to get it done in my own time.

Now, working without a specific deadline will be a challenge. I'm hoping that sharing my journey here will help spur me on.

So here's to a new beginning and many more posts to come. Soon.

Welcome Welcome!

Sixteen days ago we welcomed our Bean into the family fold. She was born weighing 9lb 2.5oz with a beautiful thatch of dark hair and very munchable chubby cheeks.

TIme

it seems to get away from you during the summer. Between running to appointments and heading out to the beach these last months have drifted away with not too much to show for them except a bulging belly and a bucket full of memories. My plans for gardening, making art, going for walks in the woods, revisiting the elements and connecting with them, heading out with the Peanut for picnics at the playground have all melted away in a haze of mid day naps and aforementioned beach days and appointments.

I could feel guilty about that but I don't have a lot of energy to spare on guilt. To be honest it's been a fabulous summer and other than a few moments of wishing that I could crawl inside the refrigerator with a tall glass of lemonade and a big bowl of ice cream; I don't think I'd change how I've been spending my time.

As the days grow shorter and the air becomes cooler, I expect my focus will return. I also expect that my days will start to have a little more shape than the loosey goosiness of the summer.

So now you know

what's put a little bump in the road I've been taking on my journey. And the bump is getting a little on the big side.

I haven't been completely idle over the last few weeks, I've been reading and learning here and there. Luckily for me, my fabulous second Mom (read Ma-in Law) has similar interests; and I like to pick up knowledge wherever I can. So when I noticed that she had a few books by James Van Praagh in her library stack I picked them up and started to do a little reading.

I often find that Pagan concepts are sometimes interchangeable with the concepts of other spiritual practices. Up to and including some Christian practices; although in the case of Christian and specifically some Catholic practices and rituals I know that this is because these religions picked up Pagan practices as a way to bring more people into their fold (the celebrations of Eostara and Easter for example.) What I found with Mr Van Praagh's books was that some of the things he does to get ready to practice his talents are interchangeable with what is standard practice for getting oneself ready for ritual; these things have just been fit into a shape that is more acceptable to someone who has been brought up within an environment that frowns upon (and sometimes even more than frowns upon depending on how open and loving a mind is) those things that fall outside of the norm.

Mr Van Praagh's background is based in Catholicism, (at one point in his youth he was training to become a priest) but when he gets ready to speak to the spirits he follows the steps of cleansing, grounding (imagining energy filling his body and spreading out beyond himself) and calling in his spiritual guides and Deity to protect himself and to bless his work thorough prayer and meditation.

When I get ready to do ritual I go through the same steps of cleansing, grounding where the earth's energy is drawn up from the core until is cascades out my fingers, toes and top of my head. I cast a circle by calling in the quarters and Deity as I cast a circle to help me with the work I wish to do. Looking at the two practices side by side they are very similar; almost interchangeable if you take out specifics regarding spirit and religion.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that once more my thoughts about Deity (whether Deity be a singular God or Goddess or a whole pantheon) and spiritual practice (whether it be Pagan or a more mainstream religious practice) are all about the same thing.

Off to the zoo

I'm hanging with my Mama this part of our trip. There's nothing like getting pampered by your Momma and spending some quality time with my sisters and the big bro and my Grandma. When I get back I'll share with you how we spilled the beans.

In the meantime I've got another scheduled post up here. We'll be back home after a big trip filled with big news, 4th birthday parties, family reunions, marshmallow roasts, mosquito bites and a trip to the zoo. It will have gone like most trips to visit family; way too fast.

I'm spending some time with the family this week.

Obviously the link that I sent you to last post was written a few weeks ago. We wanted to wait to tell our families in person before we let the world at large know what was going on.

I've got another post up at So Anyway... which goes into a little bit more about what's been going on. I hope you're having a great week and for those of you south of the border Happy Independence Day!

in case you were wondering...

a few posts ago I mentioned that I'd hit a little speed bump in my travels but I neglected to share what that speed bump was. Today I have a scheduled post up on my other blog that does the job of explaining what's been up and why I've been a little lax in my posts in favour of taking some extra care of myself.

checking in

It's been a few since my last post here. I'm still alive and well, I've just been super busy with birthday party planning, vacation plans and taking care of myself.

Since we're headed out of range of reliable Internet and by reliable I mean there's going to be Internet I just can't be relied upon to get on it when I could be visiting with my family instead.

I'll be back and posting regularly again after the 12th of June once we're back home and settled. In the meantime I've got some posts scheduled over at So Anyway... if you're feeling like you'd like a little bit to tide you over I've scheduled some posts where you can link to those posts.