to be a witch

To be a witch is to...

love and be loved

know everything and nothing at all

move among the stars while staying on earth

follow the moon

change the world around you and yourself

live with the earth, not just on it

dance and sing and hold hands with the universe

share and give, while receiving all the while

BE magic, not just perform it

be honourable or nothing at all

accept others

harm none

know what you feel is right and good

see beyond the barriers

honour the gods and yourself

be one with the gods

study and learn

be the teacher and the student

acknowledge the truth

be truly free

Found an image with this listing on it, except the listing was in a super random order (and it likely still is even after my tweaking) and had some grammatical errors... so I fixed it up. Every time it comes up (with a new person) that I'm a witch, they tend to ask me what that entails/what I believe... I'm thinking I should print this stuff out on business cards to hand out to the nosycurious people who should really just mind their own business.

Happy New Year!!

Health and happiness to my readers (and everyone else, of course!) this new year. My year started off with snuggles from Camden, playing with tinkertoy robots, and cinnamon rolls! It's started out well, now I just have to keep the ball rolling so it gets better. lol

I'm not one for resolutions. So instead of making the obligatory statements of lose weight, be nice, etc, I'm going to tell the planned benchmarks of this year, which will happen one way or the other.

This year is my Senior Recital. The date is set for mid April. I'll be doing a joint-recital with my friend, who plays tuba. Yep. A tuba/percussion recital. How fun is that?! The good news: I have all of my music picked out and know three pieces. I still have two pieces to learn: one multi-percussion piece and one duet with a friend (percussionist) which will have an afro-cuban feel to it.

I will also be taking the GRE this spring. Not really looking forward to it, but I don't have much choice. Hopefully I will only have to take it once.

I also graduate this year. In December, I'll be getting my BA. I was due to graduate in May, but a change of majors (kinda) in the last year threw my plan out of whack and trying to cram EVERYTHING into the last two semesters was a terrible idea, as I learned this last semester. So I'm taking my time, and spreading things out a little bit between this spring and next fall semesters.

So those are my definite plans for the year. As well as observing the wheel turning again, watching the seasons come and watching the seasons go. Seeing my son grow into himself, hearing his speech grow clearer everyday and rejoicing in his knowledge of emotions and abstract ideas. Learning and growing, myself.

I found this quote in Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and it really spoke to me. Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. This will be my quote for the year. It will remind me to enjoy the journey and worry less about where I'm trying to go.

Many blessings to you and yours, friends!

Transcendentalism

I have been very absent. And I have to say: I really miss this blog. Good news, though: the end is in sight! I have three weeks of class left (+1 week of finals) then it is Winter break. Huzzah! I'm hoping that the next few semesters, while busy, will be NOTHING like this semester. In fact, I've kind of insured this, by adding an extra semester to my schedule before I graduate with my BA. (Which, in turn, adds an entire year to my whole schooling schedule.) But honestly, I CANNOT go through another semester like I've just had.

Anyway, I've had a few high points. In the last few weeks, my American Lit class has been reading Emerson and Whitman. And really, all I can say is: LOVE! There are hearts drawn throughout the pages of these writings (Emerson's Self Reliance And Whitman's "Song of Myself"). Reading these, it was impossible NOT to see echoes of my own philosophies, and I've connected to these writings in a way that I rarely experience. (Good news: my convo buddies in the class also connect with the writings, and we had EXCELLENT discussions about them. And the professor noticed and basically said we were awesome. :D)

If you haven't read Emerson or Whitman or Thoreau, I highly suggest it. Don't believe me on the awesomeness level? A few of my favourite quotes from Whitman:

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

I exist as I am, that is enough

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass



--heart--

(Photo not mine)

Kids say the darndest things, no?

"I wanna play cowboy. You be cow, Mama"

"Eating hurts! No eat people! Eating people hurts!"



"Mean dinosaurs go in jail" ... "What about the good dinosaurs, Cam?" ... "No. Not good dinosaurs. Only mean dinosaurs go in jail."

"Apple butter, apple butter" (This is funny, because he was sitting in the bath, splashing as he yelled "apple butter" over and over. Even funnier that he won't try it and thinks it's gross "Apple butter, bleh!")

Just a quote

We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice -- that is, until we have stopped saying ''It got lost,'' and say, ''I lost it.'' - Sidney J. Harris

a quote

Okay, so I've been without internets (and my laptop!) since Thursday night. Those cursed viruses, you know. A quick recap of our Beltane weekend: drove to my parents' on Saturday morning, went fishing, played outside, painted the toad house and set it up in my garden, said farewell to my brother who is off to be an active military man.

I also started reading Watership Down, which as I mentioned once before is my favourite book. I hadn't read it in almost a year, and since we got the movie in Netflix, I've really been craving it. How odd that I should crave a book like I sometimes crave chocolate. It's just one of those things that will stay in the back of your mind, diving you to distraction, until you give in. So I'm reading Watership Down, the first of many Summer re-reads. In the course of reading this (fantastic) book, I came across a quote about the moon, which I absolutely love. And while it would probably be more appropriate for around the New or Full Moon, I'm going to be a deviant and post it now. :)

We take daylight for granted. But moonlight is another matter. It is inconstant. The full moon wanes and returns again. Clouds may obscure it to an extent to which they cannot obscure daylight. Water is necessary to us, but a waterfall is not. Where it is to be found it is something extra, a beautiful ornament. We need daylight and to that extent it is utilitarian, but moonlight we do not need. When it comes, it serves no necessity. It transforms. It falls upon the banks and the grass, separating one long blade from another; turning a drift of brown, frosted leaves from a single heap to innumerable flashing fragments; or glimmering lengthways along wet twigs as though light itself were ductile. Its long beams pour, white and sharp, between the trunks of trees, their clarityfading as they recee into the powdery, misty distance of beech woods at night. ... [The moonlight] does not reveal but changes what it covers. And its low intensity--so much lower than that of daylight--makes us conscious that it is something added to the down, to give it, for only a little time, a singular and marvelous quality that we should admire while we can, for soon it will be gone again.

Aside from the fact that I love how this is written, I love what it says about the moon. It does not reveal, but changes what it touches. Who has not been changed by the moon, out of those who allow her rays to touch their spirits.

Don't forget! Enter my giveaway! I'll be drawing the name tomorrow afternoon-ish.