Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Pushing your boundaries

For those that know me, it's been a busy month...if you don't know me well (yet!), then here's a quick look at what I've been up to this month.  November means NaNo to me:  National Novel Writing Month.  The goal is to write 50k words during the month of November.  I knew that I wanted to do it again this year, on top of all the other stuff I was doing.  So still planned on writing a blog post every Wednesday.  And this year I've been doing moon phase posts, so every 3-5 days I have been posting about the current phase of the moon over at Wyld Garden.  Then, I'm still working on getting my Patreon going, and making sure I do all the things there for Patrons.  Right now that means a short story every month, containing magic and seasonal influences.  I also post a vote there for next month's blog topics, and a piece from something else that I have written previously but never released.  And, because my Witchy Children (the seasonal short story I write for Patreon) story from October featured chants, I recorded them and posted all of them on Patreon this month:  eight chants I wrote and then talked about!  And still working on Wyld, the eZine I am helping produce with some friends.  Although we are currently between major issues, we have been releasing smaller articles, so I had an article to write for that too.

And that's just the writing!  I had family commitments, which meant I was away from home for a good chunk of five days this month.  And on a personal level, I enjoy playing an MMO, and right now the group I play with has been working pretty hard on getting ready for the next big raid (a boss fight that requires ten players to group up together), so we were trying to put in extra hours getting geared up for that.

I knew it was going to be a lot.  I've only been doing the Patreon stuff for three months now, so I am still sorting out the best way to plan all of that out.  Mainly it is the short story that I need to make sure I am keeping up with, not only getting the ideas to write about, but also scheduling it in so I'm not trying to write it all in the last week.  I really want those stories to be well thought out, so I not only want to have them written, but I try to read over them several times before I release them and make any changes I feel necessary.

I've done NaNo for ten years now, and completed it every year...which is a pretty big accomplishment for me.  I always set my daily goal high.  I aim for 2k words a day, which is about 400 words higher than the average needed to finish.  But I also know that things come up, that some days I just can't get into the writing, and so it gives me five days of doing nothing.  I also know from experience that on a good day I can write the 2k in about an hour...and on a slow day it could take me several hours. 

This year I had a particularly slow start.  I had way more prep done on my story this year, which I think made me a little overconfident.  I also know that I write best in the morning, but ended up doing some game stuff on several mornings in the first couple of weeks, and then dithering away the rest of my day.  Which wouldn't have been so bad, except that I didn't work extra on the other days to catch up.

Around the middle of the month, I felt way behind.  I was about 5k words behind schedule, hadn't really done much on my short story, though I had finished my Wyld article.  The worst part though was it just felt like there was so much waiting to be done.  I was starting to drag my feet and not want to write at all.

I know this feeling.  I fight this feeling all the time!  Typically I use music to bust me out of it.  I'll find some kind of music that gets me in the mood to move, and I'll dance for a bit.  Really anything that is upbeat and pumped up!  It changes my energy, and gets me motivated.

When I was down to just one week left, I still had 15k words to write, half my short story...and Thanksgiving!  I rarely write on Thanksgiving, we are always doing family stuff.  I knew I really had to dig my heals in and focus.

Stubbornness sometimes saves me.  And an intense desire not to fail, even if I'm the only one who would know.  NaNo is a perfect example of this.  Sure, I shared my progress online, and my friends and family know I'm doing it.  But I'm the only one who knows if I'm actually doing it!  I could easily have added all these other words I wrote this month into my count (and I did consider this at one point....when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed).  I could have used a previous year's work to cross the finish line.  Or I could have easily just stopped talking about it and given up.

But what I love about NaNo is it pushes me.  It makes me strive for things that seem too much, that are more than I've done before, or that challenge me in different ways.  Every year that I've done it, I've learned new things about my writing.  This year was my hardest year in terms of volume.  With all the other things I worked on this year, I wrote more in the month than any other year ever.  Not counting this blog post, I wrote 26k words for things that weren't NaNo...that's almost as if I did an extra half a NaNo!

Doing things like NaNo helps push my boundaries...it shows me just how much I can do when I put my mind to it.  I wouldn't want to write like this all year round.  I really have to structure my life a lot more to get things done.  I didn't do some things that I would have liked to do (leisure things), and I definitely wrote a lot of days that I didn't feel like writing.

But the feeling I get when I submit those last words, the final blog post of the month, and check all the tasks off in my calendar, that makes it all worth it.  Looking forward, I have a lot more confidence about being able to manage everything I want to do.  And, after such an intense period of time, a normal workload feels easy!

I think this is true of any area of your life where you push yourself hard.  Athletes do this when training, they push hard and do more in training than they need to do in a competition.  Their body becomes used to the training, so when they compete, they can push themselves hard and it may still feel easier than if they only trained doing exactly what they needed to do.  Students do the same thing studying for tests in school.  When they are applying the knowledge later, in a job or just in life, they don't need to do that intense focus on the information.  They may brush up on it as needed, but that's it.

I think this same thing often applies spiritually.  When we are learning a new discipline, we often immerse ourselves into it.  This is sort of what I'm doing with my moon work this year.  At the end of last year, I did a pretty deep study of the moon phases in general.  I had worked with them before, and had studied them before too, but not at this level of depth.  For a whole cycle, I read and journaled about the current phase, reading multiple articles and sources and then writing my own reflection.  And then, for the whole year, I've been taking that general moon phase knowledge and applying it to the particular full moon energy, which has been incredible...and a lot of work!  But I know that I am absorbing so much, and will be able to turn to this year, my journal and the things I have learned in the future..without needing to do all the work over!

If we don't challenge ourselves to push our boundaries, we never expand, we never grow.  Boundaries are there for a reason, and they definitely serve to protect us.  We want to stretch them, but not break them.  When we break our boundaries, then we open ourselves up to harm.  This means different things in different areas of your life.  Breaking a physical boundary could mean pushing yourself too hard physically and often leads to an injury.  Breaking an emotional boundary may happen when you ignore your emotional warning signs and invest yourself with things that aren't healthy for you.  Breaking a spiritual boundary could be working with things that aren't right for you (especially if you feel pressured into it by other people) or it could mean burning yourself out by doing too much too soon.  Much like physical muscles, our spiritual muscles need to be stretched so they don't get damaged.

Finding that edge where you are pushing your boundaries hard but not breaking them involves paying serious attention to your mental, physical and emotional health.  Stopping or backing off when you feel like you are ready to break is NOT a sign of weakness.  Knowing where your hard limits are is what lets you push your boundaries...because you know just how far you can stretch them and when to let the pressure off.

It can sometimes be frustrating because we often don't see the results while we are neck deep in whatever we are working on.  Many times, we have to get to the end to see how far we have come.  The true scope of our progress doesn't hit us until we are finished.  But we also sometimes need that rest time at the end to really let things sink in. 

Another thing that is important is to not be afraid to try something just because you are afraid to fail.  If you only do things that you know you can do, you aren't pushing yourself.  New things are uncomfortable because we are quite literally outside our comfort zone.  Think about it like a balloon.  If you are sitting inside the balloon, this is the place where you are at right now.  It is your comfort zone, the things in life you feel safe doing.  But if you see something interesting just outside your balloon, you can move towards it.  The balloon will stretch and you can move into a space that you haven't been before.  The balloon is still around you, but it's a bit thinner where you are at because it's growing to accommodate your movement.  If you move too far, it will pop and you won't have the protection of the balloon anymore.  But if you stand in this new space fore a while, it's like adding a bit more air, and your balloon finds a new balance.  Now, the space that was outside your balloon is inside of it and your boundaries have changed.

We naturally are drawn to things that challenge us.  We hear about something new and we may want to try it.  And we also instinctively know when we need to rest.  We just need to tune into those feelings, listen to ourselves when we are feeling tired or like we need a bit of a mental break.  And then, when we are refreshed, we can turn our attention to the next new thing!

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Sacred Feasting

Here in America, we are about to celebrate Thanksgiving, which in many ways I think of as our biggest feast day.  We gather together on other holy days to feast and celebrate, but Thanksgiving is pretty much all about the feast.  We celebrate and honor the things we are grateful for, all the blessings in our lives, but we do this through sharing food and community with each other.

I think there is something very special about a shared meal.  Food brings people together in ways that go much deeper than just filling our bellies.  For many of us, food has deep emotional ties, especially special feast foods:  foods that we may only really eat at a particular time or holy day.

So what makes a meal a sacred feast?  I feel that they key factor is recognizing the moment.  We can feast at a lot of different events.  We feast for birthdays, weddings, funerals and births.  We feast to celebrate accomplishments or to recognize life events.  We feast on holy days.  They key is that we view the meal as a special thing, not just a part of our regular daily routine.

When I was little, we typically ate dinner in the dining room.  We would sit and talk about our day as we ate.  Today, mealtime is often either a rushed thing, or spent watching a show.  I see a lot of families that may be physically together but each lost in their own world, often distracted by their phones or devices.

On a family level, many of us still celebrate family with feasting on holidays, or just a special family dinner.  Family dinners I think are great bonding times.  We set aside that time to sit and eat with each other, to connect and catch up with what has been going on in our lives.

Planning a sacred feast isn't as intimidating as it may sound!  The first thing you will want to think about is who you will be feasting with.  A sacred feast can be shared with family, with friends, with our beloved dead, with pets, with strangers...or even on your own!  I think we tend to associate the word feast with either family or a big formal celebration, but you can make any meal sacred if you slow down and set the intention for it.  Each sacred feast has it's own energy, and while the energy of a feast by yourself is quite different than one that is held at a family reunion, it can be just as moving.

Once you know who will be there, you can start thinking about what you will be celebrating.  There may be a special day you are honoring, and if there is, think about what that day means.  It is easy to forget the true essence of a holiday because we celebrate it every year.  We think about Christmas dinner, but do we stop and think about what that dinner means to us?  The things that have happened in the past year may influence how we approach the holiday feast.  Our focus may have shifted, and we may want to plan our feast to honor the emotions you are feeling and not just the general theme of the holiday.

There might not be a specific day tied to your feast.  You may just want to gather friends or family together because you haven't seen them in a while.  One thing that can be really fun for this kind of feast is to have a theme!  It could be a food theme, like all finger foods or childhood favorites, or it could be a theme based off of a favorite tv show or game.  You may want to invite people to dress up to match the theme, or bring some kind of decoration to help set the mood.

While food can be a huge part of a feast, I don't feel special food is necessary to make a meal a sacred feast.  If your means are limited, you can feast with whatever food you have!  But, many of us have special dishes that we love to make for feasts.  Many holidays have 'traditional' foods that are often included in the feasting, like turkey and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.  Your family can also have their own traditional foods.  We typically have deviled eggs at every holiday.

There is a saying that the best food is made with love, and I truly believe this.  When we make food, especially for people who are important to us, we infuse the food with our emotions.  But even if you don't know the people you are cooking for, you can charge the food with your good intentions!  When I cook, I want the people who eat my food to be blessed, to feel happy and comforted.  It doesn't matter if I know them or not.

Sometimes the host of the feast will provide all the food, but often guests will bring dishes to contribute to the feast.  I love potluck feasts.  I think it not only adds to the connection as you get to try all the other people's dishes, but it helps spread out the work which means that everyone gets to enjoy the feast instead of having a couple of people feel like they have to do everything.

Atmosphere is also important for a sacred feast.  You don't have to make things super fancy, although you absolutely can if you feel like it!  But I think a very important thing is that people who are feasting should be focused on the feast.   It is a time to celebrate with each other (or alone!) and if people are distracted, trying to check their social media or watching the television, they aren't actually participating in the feast.

I think the one exception to this is when the purpose of the feast is tied into the entertainment.  For example, if you are wanting to get together with your friends and watch the big football game, that can still be a sacred feast!  Just make sure to have time before and/or after the game to connect with each other!  Many families have a favorite movie that they like to watch at holidays.  You may find that you enjoy your feasting better if you save the movie for after you eat.  Or, plan on having either snacks before or desert after, when people can talk and spend time together.

One of the things I absolutely loved doing when I was little was setting a fancy table.  We had a set of actual silverware, and I was allowed to put it out...if I was willing to polish it before and after, which was something I was happy to do.  Setting out the silver always made things feel so special and fancy to me.  You don't need silver though to set a special table!  There are lots of ways to add a little sense of celebration to your table.

Candles are always a lovely way to dress up a table, and you can often find ones that fit whatever theme you like, even if you are just picking out the right color.  Adding some kind of flowers or other natural arrangement can be both simple and beautiful.  If you have glass bowls or vases, you can fill them with fruit, decorative stones, or nuts to make a centerpiece.  I love putting garlands in containers, it adds sparkle and makes things look very festive.

We don't need to save sacred feasting for only big occasions either.  Date night is a perfect sacred feast.  You can make a meal a sacred feast when you go out to dinner or if you stay in.  Sometimes I will make myself a sacred feast when I am home alone, when I just need to take a little time for myself, some self-care.  I'll pick some food that feels just right that day, and use a special plate or cup.  I always think that when hubby and son go out together, just the two of them, that they have their own version of a sacred boys night feast!

So as we come into the full holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year's, let's remember to slow down and make the most of our sacred feasting!  Think about what the people you are eating with mean to you.  Think about what the occasion brings up for you.  Think about how the food makes you feel.  Take time to honor these things, to recognize how important they are to you and to acknowledge the blessings they bring into your life.  Don't just eat, Feast!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Working together to Create Global Change

The nature of Paganism has changed since I started practicing.  When I was first learning, the goal was always to join a local group.  Even books that were aimed at solitaries often talked about attending group rituals or festivals and starting study groups.  But today, the internet allows us to have a full practice on our own and still work with others virtually.

Many groups now offer virtual rituals, either  through live video chat, group phone calls or chat rooms.  But we can also join together energetically and create amazing movements that create change for the things we don't like about how the world works.

This is not a new idea.  At other pivotal points in history, people have joined together to bring awareness to issues and to direct their joined energy toward the outcome they desired.  This joining may take the form of prayer, moments of silence, simultaneous candle lighting and meditation or spell casting. 

Banding together lets us combine our efforts and boosts each of our contributions.  When we work alone it is easier to feel so small, as if we are trying to move an ocean with an eye dropper.  But when we know others are working towards the same goals and that all our work will combine, we no longer feel like we have to do it all by ourselves.  If we can do even a single thing, spare a single thought or pause for just one breath, we can contribute!

Change doesn't come easily, but sometimes all it takes to get the ball rolling is for one person to lead the way.  I think that the global temperament is often like a pot of water.  The heat gets raised slowly, and we become accustomed to it.  We can look back and say things were better before, but there is not always a big change that causes things to boil.  In fact, you can super heat water and it won't boil until there is a tiny speck of something else, some outside particulate, and then the water erupts!

I feel like the water temperature of the world has been rising for a while now.  Sure, there are a lot of things that have become better, and many ways in which we have been moving forward as a global community.  But there have also been a lot of ways in which we have taken huge steps backwards.  Atrocities still happen, and it is very easy to think that as a single person, there isn't much you can do, especially when things are happening across the world.

And yet even when we see things happening right around us, in our own country, our own state, our own city, our own neighborhood....we may still feel like there isn't much we can do.  And if we only stand alone, there is a limit to what we can effect.

As a single person, I can lift so much, shout so loud, take up so much space.  I am easy to overlook as a single person.  What makes people powerful is the number of other people they can effect.  So if I am just one person, my sphere of influence appears quite limited.

But what if I start talking.  I talk about the things that upset me, the things that I feel are wrong with the world, the things I can't tolerate any longer.  And I talk to all the people I know.  That still isn't that many, even with the wonders of the internet!  But if every person I talk to then talks to all the people they know, and so on and so forth, pretty soon my words have reached a huge audience.  I am no longer one person, I am now the start of a revolution.

Revolution can be a scary word to many people, but being a part of a revolution doesn't mean that you need to attend protests or overthrow the system.  Thought can be extremely revolutionary!  It all starts with an idea.  When you change the way people think, you change how they act.  When thoughts become unbearable to people, they no longer do things that make those thoughts reality.  And that is when true change happens.

We all have gifts and we all have resources.  Each of us has things we are good at!  These are the things you must do, the things you offer to any revolution you participate in.  Your gifts may be subtle or they may be loud.  You may not think you have gifts, but you do!

Your gifts may be that you can inspire others to acknowledge their own inner feelings of unhappiness with the way things are.  Your gifts might be the ability to organize people with similar ideas towards a common action.  Your gifts may be to figure out the best actions to take at this moment in time.  Your gifts might be to help keep people thinking clearly, so they are acting in their best interests and not just becoming an angry mob.  Your gifts might be to silently bear witness, to watch and acknowledge those around you.  Your gifts might be to sooth those who are too heartbroken to do anything.

When you find a cause that you believe in, something that makes you want to change the world in order to make your vision of what could be into reality, that is your revolution.  When when we meet others that belong to our revolution, these are our sisters and our brothers, our revolutionary family.  Together we can pool our gifts, clasp hands and hearts and focus our intentions towards creating change.

So seek out your family, find people who have reached the end of their rope, and work together.  Though you may be far apart, you may never meet or speak in real time, we have the tools to organize, to share our outrage, our hurt, and our visions of a better future. Discover your gifts and let them shine.  Do your part to bring about the world you want to live in!

Smudge Sticks!

Smudge sticks are considered a staple by people of many different spiritual paths. While Sage smudge sticks are often considered more traditional, there are lots of lovely options out there that include other herbs. Smudge sticks are used to cleanse and purify an area, as well as lending their lovely aroma.



I recently had the opportunity to use two smudge sticks made by “New Age Imports,” a California based company, and both smudge sticks are labeled as made in the USA. They smelled lovely, even through the packaging, and even better once they were opened.

These are quite large smudge sticks, both were just over nine inches long and around an inch and a half in diameter. They are bound very well, not too tight, so that they still burn nicely, but not so loose that the string is falling off.

As you can see, the herbs were still green in color, though definitely dried, leaving them pliable and not crumbly at all. There were a few loose bits that fell off the Lavender bundle when I first took it out of the packaging, but not much at all, and once I started using it I didn't have trouble with pieces falling off.





These smudge sticks smell just as amazing once lit, and produced a nice amount of smoke, as I tried to capture here in this picture! I had no problems keeping it smoldering as I was working with the smudge sticks. 

It is a good idea to use a dish or other fireproof container to catch any ash or cinders anytime you are smudging somewhere that a stray spark could cause a fire hazard.




I also pulled some of the leaves out, and burnt them loose, which worked out nicely. I did have to relight them a few times, but they could easily be sprinkled over a charcoal disk or onto a fire!






 
I like letting mine go out on their own, so I set them over a dish and they continued to burn for several minutes. Before I lit them again, I just used my fingers to crumble some of the excess ash off the tip, and had no problems relighting them.  You can also extinguish your smudge stick by pressing it into a bowl of sand (be sure to shake the sand out before reusing!) or by pressing it against a stone or other hard, fireproof surface.

The aroma of the smudge filled my house and was noticeable for several hours! Both my husband and son enjoyed the scent, and I loved how it made the house smell and feel clean and fresh.


 If you have never tried a smudge stick before, I highly recommend giving these a go!   Not only can they be used around the house, they are wonderful for using before a ritual.  We smudged everyone at the start of our recent Day of the Dead ritual.  It is a wonderful method for cleansing people before they enter circle.  Many people like to smudge their magical tools regularly as well.

Whether your are smudging a person, a place or an object, you simply light your smudge stick so that it is smoldering nicely then fan the smoke over the thing you are cleansing.  You can use your hand, a fan or a feather to direct the smoke where you want it to go. 

I got my smudge sticks from my local store, Green Earth Stones I love going in there, the owner Kathryn is very friendly and always willing to help. I highly recommend anyone in the Bowling Green Kentucky area stop by and check it out, there are often events and classes held right in the shop.  To find out what events are happening or to see newly released items, be sure to follow them on their Facebook page.  If you aren't in the area, you can also order from the Green Earth website, which has a great variety of products.  

These are the specific smudge sticks I used.  Mugwort JUMBO (Black Sage) Smudge stick and Lavender Smudge stick JUMBO

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Practicing gratitude

I had this topic planned for sometime this month, but in light of the turmoil surrounding the presidential election, it seems extra pertinent. 

Gratitude is one of those things that helps us focus on what is bright and wonderful in our lives.  It brings joy by forcing us to thing about the good things.  It is like lighting a candle in the dark, it can help brighten the area around you.  And the more candles you spark, the more light and warmth you surround yourself with!

It is really easy to be grateful when things are wonderful, but sometimes we don't really let that gratitude sink in.  When someone gifts us with a lovely thing, we may feel that burst of joy and say thank you and in that moment we are fully in a state of gratitude.  But sometimes, that state fades quickly, and it's not that we aren't still grateful or that we don't still love our gift, but it is hard to maintain that kind of emotional high.

It is also very hard sometimes to even think about being grateful when things are rough.  But, not only are those the times where we can gain the most out of a gratitude practice, it is also when the smallest moments of gratitude can make the most difference.

The wonderful thing about gratitude is that it can start small and snowball into something much bigger.  On our darkest days, we may struggle to find anything to be grateful for.  We may have to dial it back so far, that we end up with gratitude like:  I am grateful that I woke up this morning, I am grateful that I am not a hateful person, or I am grateful for friends to cry with.  We may not feel like we can be grateful for the bigger things.

And we may feel this somehow makes us a lesser person...but it absolutely does NOT!  Gratitude is something that spawns deep within, and there are times where we don't feel grateful for things that our brain tells us we should be.  Gratitude is a feeling, it isn't a fact....and if you don't feel it, then you don't feel it!  You may have to dig deep, or get creative with where you look for the gratitude within you.  But it is so very worth it to find those tiny sparks when we are feeling most down.

Gratitude is very personal.  What one person is grateful for might be something that upsets another person.  Or what makes you giddy inside might seem sort of silly to someone else.  Be true to yourself!  Let your gratitude shine out and allow yourself to acknowledge all the tiny (or huge) things that bring you joy!

Every single second we can spend thinking about what we are grateful for is one second that we are NOT thinking about stressful, fearful or angry thoughts.  It is one second of peace and calm in what may be a whirlwind of crazy.  It is one more cry for MORE of what we want in life!  The more we can spend time thinking about, focusing on and calling for the good things, the more we will find them around us.

Never beat yourself up if you are having a horrible day (or week...or year...or life)!  Stop, and find one thing, just one little thing that you like.  Even if it can't bring a smile to your face, even if you are in a place where you just want to curl into a ball and hide from everything, look for that one thing that makes everything a little less bad.  Because sometimes, that is all you can grab onto.  Some days you can't get to good or happy, all you can manage is 'not quite as bad'.  But it is so very vital to find any hope, any light, any joy.

I am grateful for every day and every breath I take.  I am grateful for a husband who may not always agree with me, but still supports my right to argue with him about anything and everything...and underneath it all supports my thinking, feeling and doing things that make me happy.  I am grateful for a son who is growing into his own man, and who has always been loving and respectful towards us.  I am grateful for crayons and scribbled drawings, for color and sparkly markers that turn my fingers rainbow colors when I use them.  I am grateful for song, for chanting, for music.  I am grateful for stories that carry me away when I need to be somewhere that is not here.  I am grateful for flickering flames that mesmerize me.  I am grateful for friends and family who make me feel needed and who miss me when we are apart.

Make yourself a gratitude practice.  There are a million ways to start practicing gratitude..try different ones and see which ones you like and which ones work for you!  When you wake up in the morning, before you even get out of bed, take a deep breath and be grateful for breath and for waking and for a brand new day.  When you drink your coffee, or tea or water, think about your day and the things that you are grateful for that are coming up for you.  When you sit down for a meal, say a prayer of gratitude for the food you are eating, for the plants and animals that sustain you, for the people you eat with, and for the people who are not with you at that meal but still important to you.  When you get ready for bed, think about all the things that happened that day that you are grateful for.  When you lay down and close your eyes, be grateful for rest and sleep and the ending of one day so that a new day can begin.

Start a gratitude journal!  Set aside time every day to write down things that you are grateful for.  Make a goal to write one or three or ten things that you are grateful for.  Whenever you are feeling sad, write down something that makes you happy.  When you feel angry, write down something that makes you calm.  When you are frustrated, write down something that makes you laugh.

Make a collage of things that you are grateful for!  Flip through old magazines and find pictures of things that make your life better, whether they are directly part of your life or not!  I may not interact with wolves, but they are something that has impacted my life in great ways over the years....they would go on my gratitude collage!  A gratitude collage is a great way to honor cycles of time, you can make them at the end of a moon cycle, at Sabbats or for each year.  It can be a lot of fun to then go back and look at these slices of time and see what you were grateful for!

You can also take your gratitude practice and use it to build community!  Write letters to people who have touched your heart, letting them know how much they meant to you.  Share something you are grateful with on social media and ask your friends to post something they are grateful for in return.  Start a gratitude chain:  pick a friend to post something specific about them that you are grateful for, and then have them pick someone and so on!  Or offer to do a gratitude exchange:  let your friends post something about you that they are grateful for in exchange for your comment on something about them that you are grateful for.

The more we stop and notice what we are grateful for, the easier it becomes to honor the wonderful things in our lives.  The more we start to feel that gratitude spread throughout the moments of our days and our lives.  When we are full of gratitude, we can share that gratitude with those around us...we become a beacon of light that shines into the darkness of the world.  The more we search for things to be grateful for, the more we start to notice all the things around us that we have to be grateful for! 

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time is one of those things that many people are frustrated by.  To many of us, myself included, it seems like an unnecessary hassle, and feels like it creates more trouble that it is worth.  There are many beliefs about DST, from how it came to be to why we continue to do it.  Some people are fans, and I have seen many different arguments for the benefits of keeping with the system.

Most of the time it is farmers that are attributed with the creation of DST, the idea being that farmers would want the extra daylight time.  However, many farmers throughout the years have actively opposed DST.  Shifting how we track time limits farmers in the morning, when many are working to bring their wares to market.  And since animals don't respond to DST, that further complicates things for them.

Two of the earliest people credited with suggesting daylight savings times did so because of their hobbies.  One collected insects as a hobby, and desired extra daylight hours after work in which to pursue his interests.  The other enjoyed morning rides and golfing, and was dismayed to see his countrymen sleeping through the early summer light and hated cutting his golf rounds short at dusk.

But one of the main reasons we observe DST today was because of WWI.  Germany led the way, adopting the practice as a way to conserve coal during wartime.  Many countries followed suit, and though the practice was abandoned during times of peace, it would be reinstated during times of war. 

Some countries have never used DST, and some have used it in the past but do not use it today.  Not all countries adjust their clocks at the same time.  This year, for example, Europe changed their clocks a week before the US.  And while the US changes clocks at 2am local time (so each time zone changes at a different time UTC), Europe changes at the same 'base' time (which means each time zone changes at a different local time).

This of course leads to a lot of confusion.  Not only does each individual need to remember to change their clocks (if they live in a place that observes DST), the time conversion globally fluctuations during this time of the year, making it way more complex to organize things with people who don't live near you.

But under it all, there exists the potential for a unique magical opportunity.  When I was first starting out, I was fascinated by the 'year and a day' concept of time.  It was one of those things that was often quoted in regards to a course of study.  The standard for a degree (back when everyone talked about the three degrees) was to study for a year and a day....and that was after spending a year and a day researching and learning to see if the path was right for you to begin with.

I wondered why the day was tacked on, and then I came across the 'time outside of time' concept.  One of the sources I read listed December 23, as a day of Time beyond Time...and the 'day' in the year and a day.  In some older calendar calculations (particularly Egyptian), in the desire to have months with regular and equal days, the extra days were considered special feast days and not counted as part of the regular year.

While we don't get a full day for DST, twice a year we end up with an hour that is not counted normally.  In the fall, when clocks 'fall back', this means we get an extra hour.  In the spring, when clocks 'spring forward' we loose an hour, skipping it entirely.  This creates a really interesting potential for using this time to do magical work.

In the fall, when we have our extra hour, this is a perfect time to do rituals or workings for increase.  It would be especially good for things that you want to do but never seem to find the time to do.  Another option is to use this extra time to call other bounty into your life....other luxuries or extras you would like to have more of!

In the spring, consider 'scheduling' things you dislike in this missing hour.  You can do this anytime before the time changes and the hours is lost.  You can create an entry in your calendar or datebook and write down the things you want to loose in that time slot.  Or you can make an appointment card or notice on a separate piece of paper, and list all the things you want to skip on it.  This is also a good time to work on things you would like to pass by quicker, as that hour will slip by in an instant!

You can also use the whole time between when DST starts in the spring and when it ends in the fall to honor blessings in your life that you are 'saving'.  Summer months are often quite busy, and we may not take time to notice all the wonderful things in our lives.  And, during the winter months, we may feel starved of all these 'light' things that feel very far away. 

Why not create a Light jar!  Take some kind of container and keep colorful scraps of paper nearby.  When you feel blessed by something, write it on a piece of paper and put it in your Light jar.  You can fill it with as many papers as you like!  If you aren't familiar with this kind of gratitude practice, you may want to set aside a time once a week (or more often!) to sit and think of everything that has made your life brighter and more joyous...and add those to the jar.  You can absolutely add more inbetween, but having those set times helps you stop and take notice and not let the time pass you by.

Then, when DST ends, you can spend the rest of the year, until it starts back up again, using your set aside day to spend time with your 'saved light', reflecting on it and soaking it up!  You could keep your light notes in the jar, or make a collage out of them.  They could become part of a piece of art you display or they may sit in a box on your altar, ready to be sifted through as you need.  You may want to draw one piece of light every day, or whenever you are feeling particularly down.

DST also gives us the opportunity to be closer or further away in time to other people we know.  I've lived in places that observe DST and places that maintain 'standard' time throughout the year.  So sometimes the time difference between me and my family or friends would be more or less than other times.  Or, in the case of DST occurring on different dates, that will give you time between changes when you may be closer or further away in time.  This can give us opportunities to connect with people we may feel distant to...or set up space from people we may feel smothered by.

One of the main times we think about time difference is when calling people in different time zones, so a phone is a perfect symbol to use when working with time and people.  You can take a picture of a phone and on the back of it, write down all the ways you would like to connect with a distant friend.  For someone you want to maintain distance from, use a picture of an answering machine or a missed call message. 

And finally, don't forget that you can do workings to help the actual change occur smoothly.  Plan a ritual for either the night before the change or the morning after (I like to observe the changes in the morning after), to acknowledge the change.  You can ask for a blessing to make your day go smoothly and not be slowed down by the time change, or by people who forgot!  You can also plan your ritual several days before the change, to help prepare.

DST may feel like a hassle, but it can be a very interesting and unusual tool.  We can harness this deliberate alteration of how we perceive time and make it work in our favor, instead of feeling frustrated by it's imposition on our lives.  And sometimes, it is helpful to just take a step back and notice how this thing we have created (time zones, DST, hours, days....time!) can create so much chaos....and ultimately is nothing more than an idea!