Appreciating food

 Thanksgiving is a tricky time for a lot of people.  Firstly, family can be tricky, and even if you have a good relationship with most of your family, gathering them all together in one place can be a lot.  If you don't have a good family dynamic, you may be looking at a horrible family event, or missing out entirely (and wishing you had the kind of family that is often shown on tv).  And that's not even mentioning any issues with the holiday itself!

But underneath all the drama, I feel that the heart of Thanksgiving is about giving thanks.  And because it's a feast-based holiday where the food isn't just trappings added on at the end, it is a time where we can give appreciation for the food we have.

Food is another thing that is tricky for a lot of people.  Many people have food restrictions, that find their roots in medical, religious or monetary issues.  We may love foods that are unhealthy for us, or struggle with eating in some other way.  We might harbor guilt for having so many foods at our fingertips knowing that people in other areas of the world have so very little.  We may be envious of people who have more than we do.

Food is such a basic necessity, and yet it is also something that many people take for granted (especially if you have never had any issues with it).  It is ever present in our modern world.  We may complain about having 'nothing to eat' but still have a cupboard full of staples.  We may miss eating out when we still have access to frozen means or delivery.  We watch shows that show food in many forms, and in fact  have entire channels dedicated to food!

I am one of those lucky people who hasn't ever had to worry about starvation.  Like many people, there have been lean times, and I try very hard to not be wasteful with my food (for a variety of reasons, but one of them is absolutely the recognition of the fact that there are people in this world who would love any food that I might carelessly toss away).  I also have some food issues, I very much enjoy foods that aren't good for me and I have quite a bit of food anxiety (especially in regards to improperly prepared food, food spoilage or cross-contamination).

But on the whole, I recognize my food privilege and try hard to appreciate all the blessings I have, when it comes to food.  And for me, that starts with being more mindful of the foods we buy and eat.  One thing I think sometimes gets forgotten is that mindfulness doesn't always mean avoiding convenience foods or going super green.  I'm definitely not shopping in the all organic section or avoiding processed foods.

What it means, for me at least, is paying attention to what I am buying.  Being aware of both the healthiness of food and it's crave factor (and knowing which foods I'm likely to binge eat).  It's balancing cost and taste (obviously we try to shop in our budget, but we aren't at a place where everything needs to be the cheapest).  

Part of my personal food journey is thinking about my eating habits in a bigger picture sense.  I'm often home alone for breakfast and lunch, and I know I'm a grazer so I typically get hungry after dinner and before bed.  Which means I need to plan for all of that.  I also know that I'm a pretty basic eater in some ways (having the same food every day for breakfast is not a big deal, and often I prefer it as it means I don't have to decide what I want to eat).  

Food appreciation intersects with self care when I think about lunch foods.  There are lots of great, cheap options, but there are also some really appealing choices that aren't so bad when you price compare to, for example, grabbing a meal from a fast food place.  Part of my self-care and self-worth work is finding things that are slightly more pricey and reminding myself that I don't have to always pick the cheapest food.

Eating out is another place where food appreciation can be overlooked.  Eating out is often both convenient and sometimes can be cost effective.  It's one of those things that sneaks up on you, but sometimes when we plan meals at home, they end up costing us more than if we went out to eat.  On the other hand, fast food is often deceptive, and there are quite a few great sit-down places by us where we can eat as cheap (or sometimes cheaper) than if we grab vast food (and often I'll get two meals out of a sit-down meal, as I'll take leftovers home).

There's nothing innately wrong with either out, either at a fast food place or a sit down place.  But I think it's easier to take that food for granted as it's convenient.  With all the changes lately in how food places are managing to stay open (or not, as many places have either had to shut down completely or drastically change how they operate), many people are coming face to face with just how much they took for granted these places being at their disposal.

In some ways, Thanksgiving reminds me a little of Valentines day.  Both are 'once a year' holidays to recognize things we should be doing every day.  Just as we shouldn't wait until Valentine's day to tell the people we love that we love them, we shouldn't wait until Thanksgiving day to give thanks for our food.

Whether you want to incorporate some kind of mealtime prayer or gratitude, acknowledge your blessings as you do grocery shopping or simply take a moment as you prepare food (or order it, if you are going out) to recognize the bounty you have, expressing our gratitude helps us appreciate the food we consume more.  And having a solid appreciation for the foods we eat can help us maintain a healthy relationship with food...and ourselves.

Seasonal practice

Many Pagans and witches still use the Wheel of the Year as some part of their practice, even if it isn't the core of their work.  We honor the cycle of nature, and there are natural points in the year that we celebrate as part of the turning of the seasons.

But often our regular practice remains the same throughout the year.  Some small things may change (like we may be less inclined to take long walks in the winter or the summer), but especially if you are an 'indoor' Pagan, like me, your daily practice might not take into account the seasons.  

This mindset stems from our modern mastery over the natural world...in the sense that virtually nothing else in our daily life changes depending on the season, so why should your spiritual life?  And yet, even if you spend the bulk of your days inside, the flux in the world seeps in.

One of the most basic ways in which the world effects us is the amount of daylight per day, and when those daylight hours are.  Our brains react differently to sunlight than to moonlight (or artificial light), and this is one of the reasons we are drawn to be more active (and often to be outdoors) more in the summer, when the light is at it's height.  On the flip side of the wheel, in winter we may find ourselves more likely to cuddle up with a blanket and a story (whether that means a book or a show).

Learning to embrace these seasonal tides can help us work with our own natural cycles.  Even though there are general tendencies, we each have our own unique nature, and so we may find that we get personally invigorated in the fall and in the spring we find ourselves more lethargic.  Taking note of what you are drawn to...as well as what you resist, helps you develop a cyclical practice that works for you!

One of the benefits of having a cyclical practice is that you can include more things without overwhelming yourself...and without spreading yourself too thin.  Most people find they get the best benefits from sticking with a practice, doing it on a regular basis.  But we only have so much time in any given day (and we have many responsibilities!), so you may only have time to do one or two spiritual practices every day.

If you have a lot of interests, this can leave you feeling like you can't focus in on any one of them as much as you would like.  If you have ten different things you are wanting to work with, and you do one every day, that's a week and a half before you do the same thing again...much too long to retain much of what you did the previous time.  By splitting your time by seasons, and working with different things in each season, you can work with things for a block of time, and then work with something that suits you better in the next season.  It allows you to not only stick with something but also change it up and keep things fresh.

And these don't have to be all or nothing swaps either.  You might do divination all year, but really dive deep in the winter months.  So in winter, you might do weekly or even daily spreads, bust out your books or study your decks, while the rest of the year you might stick to a monthly reading.  Or, you may want to work with several divination methods, and you find that you get more understanding from your tarot cards in the spring but from runes in the fall.

Some practices naturally fall into certain parts of the year.  If you like wildcrafting, you work with things when they are in season.  Spring and fall become busy times, while winter might be a time of playing with new recipes and combinations.  

There are also mundane considerations to think about.  If you have young kids, summer might be a very busy time for you, as the kids are home and needing more attention.  You might need to pare your practice back, and then in fall, when school starts up again, you might feel the call to really dive back in full tilt.  Fall might be your deep study time, where you do a lot of reading and research, so you have plenty of new ideas to mull over during the rest of the year.

For me personally, Halloween marks the start of what I call holiday season.  From Halloween through New Year is just super busy.  There are not only family holidays, but I do NaNo (which demands a lot of both time and brain focus).  There are gifts to plan and acquire, meals to organize and cook, gatherings to attend...it just feels like I'm moving non-stop through the last months of the year.

And yet....I also am motivated by that movement.  I often get my big ideas for the next year during this almost frantic time.  I write myself notes and make plans.  It's a time of big transition for me, and I'm working on making my new planner, figuring out what my focus is going to be for the coming year, reflecting on the past year.  

When the New Year actually rolls around, I feel like I need a break.  I tend to spend January doing the bare minimum.  I'd like to say I hit the ground running, but I tend to start each year with a rest time, focusing on recovering from the crazy end of the previous year.  Even though I often have big spiritual plans for the year, I start soft, I kind of let the dust settle and then ease into things.

Developing a seasonal rhythm to your practice isn't something you need to set in stone either!  You can try things out, and see what works...and what doesn't.  A season is only three months (or one and a half if you want to break it down by Sabbats), and if something really isn't sitting well with you, you don't even have to finish out the season....especially if you are finding you just can't keep up with a practice, or if you find you are really craving something that you aren't doing.

When you notice things like this...write them down!  If you are finding a practice isn't working for you, spend a bit of time thinking about why it's not working, and consider if another time might work better.  Make a note to revisit it then.  If instead you are missing something you aren't doing, that's great!  Remember what time made you crave that practice and plan on doing it more at that time of the year.

The more you work with feeling out what practices fit best at different times of the year, the more you will create a unique, and seasonal, practice that fits your life.  And you may find that you get to do more, and things just flow better...because you are doing them in their best time.

Honoring non-combat Veterans

 On the surface, Vetaran's day isn't technically a Pagan holiday.  And yet, many of us owe great portions of our daily life (and freedoms) to the soldiers who dedicated part of their life to the defense of the country we live in...whether or not they actually fought in a war.

I'm not, by any means, belittling the hardships and sacrifices made by soldiers who have taken part in combat, simply voicing a reminder that joining the military is a relinquishment of a lot of the freedoms we take for granted, often freedoms we have these same soldiers (or ones like them in other times) to thank for.

I grew up in a military family, and while I was only a child, I saw some of the sacrifices made in everyday life for a soldier.  The military decided where we lived, and for how long.  It decided when my father would travel away from home.  

I have known people in the military my whole life, and they often are required to live by certain standards that most adults don't have to consider.  They are expected to look a certain way, act a certain way, and often these strictures extend beyond their 'working' hours...as the whole time you are part of the military you are considered a representative of your country, so you can't do some of the dumb things the rest of us have the freedom to choose to do.

And while they do get days off and vacation time, those things can be recalled at any time, if it is deemed necessary.  In a fairly real sense, by joining the military you have signed away those years of your life, dedicating yourself to the greater good and to doing what is needed for your country.

It always makes me both sad and mad when I see people make light of military who haven't seen combat.  Of course combat veterans and military folks are dealing with stuff most of us can never truly (hopefully) understand.  But simply being in the military means living with the idea, every day, that you could be in those situations.

When we honor Veterans (and members of the military), we should honor all of them, regardless of whether they have seen combat or not.  We should recognize the sacrifices of personal freedoms they have made, in order to better protect and serve the people of their homeland.

As a Pagan, I feel very deeply that my life is made better because of the people who serve in the military.  I hope that we can find peaceful solutions, but I am grateful that we have men and women who are willing to step up when that isn't the case.  I also trust that when disasters happen, the military is often called in to help with rescues and cleanup.  

I don't think of it as a debt owed, in the traditional sense, but I do feel like I need to acknowledge how my life has been impacted by the people who serve my country.  For me, this means saying prayers for our military, so that they can find peaceful solutions, so they can come home safely (and so the military of other countries can also come home safely).  It means sending energy and blessings to our soldiers, many of whom are young and away from home for the first time (or not able to be home with their families as much as other people). 

Though I will never be military myself, the one thing I can do is support our military folks.  Whether I agree with the decisions politicians are making or not.  Whether we are in a war I approve of or not.  The men and women who are putting themselves out there, whether they are in an active conflict situation or not, deserve my respect and gratitude.

It is very easy to transfer our opinions about our government and about war in general to the people who are doing the fighting, but I feel it is important to remember that most of them don't have a choice about what they are doing.  Yes, they chose to join (though in many cases, it wasn't a choice at all), but once they are in, choices are gone, and they are left with following orders. 

So regardless of I feel about the greater issues at hand, no matter what other magical work I may be doing to change the system...I feel it is vital to remember that the actual soldiers, the people who are in those unenviable positions of serving their country.  And I will continue to treat all of them with the respect they are due, and to hold gratitude in my heart for their sacrifices.

Daytime versus Nighttime

 With daylight savings time just around the corner, it's time to once more look at...well time!  The purpose of daylight savings time was to create more 'usable' time during the daylight hours, so that businesses would be open and people would go about their daily routine when it was light out, trying to make the most of those precious hours of daylight in the winter.

One of the obvious advantages of doing things in the daylight is that you can see (without using artificial light).  We now know that the exposure to actual sunlight has a physiological effect not only on how people sleep but on their mood in general as well.  

Many people find that being on a night schedule is exhausting (and of course it is inconvenient...trying to run all your errands on a nigh shift schedule is near impossible), and even if they tend to be night owls and naturally stay up later at night, not going to sleep until after the sun has risen can be difficult.

A lot of people believe that waking up early is somehow better than sleeping later and staying up later (and I'm talking about when you can schedule your day however you like).  Almost every productivity schedule has an early rise time.  And if someone needs to stretch their day to add in workout time or meditation, it's rarely suggested that you stay up later to make more time, you are always expected to wake up earlier.

Now, speaking as someone who isn't a morning person, at all, that always struck me as somewhat odd.  I understand why, if you need to be at work by 8, then sleeping until 9 is a problem, but I never understood why it was an issue if you weren't bound by such a schedule.

And I think that part of it is our association with day time, the sun and the external world.  If we consider the sun and moon as the ruling heavenly bodies of their respective times, the sun is out outward facing selves and the moon is the inward facing self.  The sun is how we interact with others, the going out and doing, while the moon is our inner world, the sitting and thinking and dreaming.

So it sort of makes sense that we lump 'work' and active times with the day and sleep with the night.  But it might be worth considering what kind of work you want to do.  I definitely find that some things come easier at night, and some things I prefer to do during the day.

I read an interesting correlation between electric lights and candle light, how when the electric lights are on, we talk about the outer world, but when we are light by candle (or fire) light, we focus on dreams and spiritual matters.  I think this lines up quite well with the sun and moon energies.

If I have a lot of stuff to get done in a day, I would much rather sort out the outside stuff first.  I may not even be fully awake, but if we have errands to run, I'd rather do them early and have the rest of the day to enjoy, than take my time waking up and piddling around the house, then have to go and get everything sorted.

And while I can get more done during the day, I often get great ideas at night (especially after I'm 'done' with my stuff for the day).  The evenings are my time to just unwind and do whatever, and I often feel like my brain is just done for the day, and yet if I engage in a creative practice (with no expectation of 'producing' stuff, just focusing on the process) I make leaps I might not make at other times.  The best time for me to think about new ideas is right before bed (though that does make it sometimes hard to remember the ideas!)

Our brains work in different ways, so some people might find that fresh energy in the morning, when they first wake up and soak in the sun, is what vitalizes their mind and body.  They may be someone who can get a million things done in the morning, and when they harness that drive their life moves smoother.  For them, waking up later might throw their entire day off, and they might feel like they are playing catch up the rest of the day, like they are always behind.

Others may be more like me, and when I have to get up early, almost irregardless of what time I went to bed and how much sleep I get, I'm groggy and tired and I just can't think straight.  But on the flip side of the day, even if I was up since the crack of dawn and yawned my way through the day, once the sun sets, it's like my batteries recharge and my mind wakes up.

Whichever way you seem to lean, it's worth paying attention to how you feel and what you excel at in the day and night times.  Find ways to structure your day to make the most of how you personally react to the times of day, and try swapping things around whenever you can until you find the way that works best for you.