Best

Today I will be the Best...

Since there is not a picture to combine all those
<--------- things I will chose the one
I feel I am most these days.

Mother
Wife
Lover
Friend
Witch
Employee
Sister
Person
Housekeeper
Driver
Cook
... that I can be.
Because I can.







Sometimes being the best Mother means leaving the dishes.


Sometimes I pass on my friends so I can be with my best friend and lover, my husband.


Sometimes I pass on everything to meditate.


Sometimes I Smile at people just to see them Smile.



Sometimes I buy the person in front of me's coffee.


Sometimes I shower a room with rose petals.


Sometimes I sleep late.


Sometimes I eat a cupcake.

.

Sometimes I make extra food and send it to friends.


Sometimes I actually talk on the phone. ;)


Sometimes I grab kids off a bus.


Sometimes I buy flowers for "no reason".


Sometimes I watch a movie over and over and over and over and over....


Sometimes I turn the music up and just dance!
I'm not perfect but I want to give the best Me I have
everyday. SMIB.






I do everything I do to strive to find Balance. Find the balance in your life... be the best you can be <3

I don't need to be Super Woman I just need to be Me.

-Blessed Be

Mommy

I recently was asked for my mother's name for security purposes.
I thought for a minute and still gave her the WRONG NAME!!!
In my defense she will have been gone 30 years this year... wow... 30 years...
I began to think that I need to tell stories about my mother to my kids.
I should show them pictures... wait... I don't think I have a single picture of my Mother.
Then I started thinking about how I have gone years without taking pictures with my son.
I had bought into the idea that I am not the perfect woman and therefore should not be seen... especially for posterity. :(

I thought about that when my son turned 13. I started taking pictures of me with my son.
This year after the birth of my daughter I gave my son a collage of some of my favorite pictures of me with my son. I LOVED it... and while he liked it... his comment was wow these pictures are old!
I need to fix that! We need to take pictures more often! I think I have 4 pictures of me with my daughter... FOUR. She IS only 3 months old but I need to make sure we have pictures together!
I am sooo glad that we took a Family picture together this year for Yule but I need to make a habit of taking more pictures with my kids. You never know what will happen in life. Make sure that you reminders for your future generations <3

-Blessed Be.

Behavior

I think that as Pagans we should held to higher standards. We are nature lovers, and as humans are a part of nature, we should love one another. I am not saying we must blindly love everyone. But we should treat all people with respect and honor. Our behavior speaks volumes.
Everyone has heard the joke about the old lady that screams in traffic, swearing and giving a middle finger as she passes, only to find Christian bumper stickers, or the "Jesus fish" on her car. But can the same be true for us? We are people who embrace different Gods and Goddesses, some Celtic, some Egyptian, some nature... the list could literally fill this blog. Can we embrace everyone? Are we seen as the people who are screaming in traffic only to have our bumper stickers say "Coexist"; "The Goddess is Alive and Magick is Afoot"; "My other car is a Broom"; "Ankh if you love Isis"... again the list can go on forever.

We need to set an example. We need to as, my friend says, "be the better witch." We already have enough grief from outside our group, (being called devil worshipers and the like) we don't need to add to it!
After signing up to do this project I had a series of nightmares involving a group of Pagans. I expected problems. Sadly that is what my unconscious associated "group of Pagans" with: drama. Although this seems counter intuitive as we pride ourselves on our diversity! My experience shows a group quick to spread and believe gossip, and a lack of tolerance.  (I am exited to see how wonderful this project has been and am really glad I pushed through my fears.)


I am a healer. I have taken the Hippocratic oath. I have pledged to "Do no harm."  Later in life I took another oath which says:  "And it Harm None, Do What Ye Will."
I am out of the closet. Recently I had a friend tell me that a person that I met through her and friended on Facebook asked about me being Pagan. He was excited that I am Pagan and Poly and open about both. He was excited to have such diversity in his friends. I want to make all the people that fall under those labels proud. I work everyday on making the best ME I can be.  I am often misunderstood, and have often been the center of gossip. I have at times fallen into the habit of talking about others. I am then angry with myself about it later.  I am the ONLY person responsible for MY behavior. ME.

Please remember that our actions are as loud as our words. Be the Best that you can be.


-Blessed Be

Altars

My Greenman and I have many of our PBP planned out. I decided to do Altars. Then I saw how many people posted on altars and instead of being dissuaded I was inspired! Our recent pregnancy exhausted me. We currently do not have an altar set up. We have been saying for months that it has to happen and now? It WILL! Because I will have a picture of it for this blog! Thank you again Rowan Pendragon for inspiring us to be better pagans! <3


I want to start with why altars are important to me. For me they show respect and honor. They show that the Lord and Lady have a place in my home and my life. They keep me on top of my spiritual practice. They remind me to be on a daily basis to practice my faith.


Altars are very personal and can have a variety of components. I also change the components to fit the season, ritual, God or Goddess I am honoring... the list of reasons is endless. For example: sometimes I use a chalice to represent Goddess, sometimes a silver candle, sometimes a statue, sometimes something that represents the Goddess I am working with.


I have pictures of previous altars I will add at the end too but the altar I am setting up now is a shared altar with my Greenman in our Magickal sanctuary. The goal is to have at least one family altar set up again very soon.
The Altar that I set up was for the Wolf Moon.


It is a simple altar with candles for the 4 directions, one for God and Goddess; wood for earth, smudge stick for air, shells for water; small statue of Gaia; water in the upper left corner to receive the Full Moon's blessing' a celtic pentagram; a wolf's skull; and several crystals including one for each of the 4 directions with a wolf in the middle








The BEST part about our altar was lighting it with our daughter! <(:-)

This is currently my favoritist picture EVER

 So YES! We now have an altar set up in our house again!!! This year is already starting off amazing! :)


These are some altars from the past... 
enjoy :)

This was a working altar that I was using for self love. 

This was an altar I had set up in my room.

This was a simple altar we used for an Imbloc ritual.

This was a crystal grid altar.

Ostara Altar. 

Avalon

This is a story of my Magickal, Spiritual Journey with my Avalon.

Someone I have come to admire over the last year, Rowan Pendragon (http://onewitchsway.com/),
announced a new project that she is working on. The Pagan Blog Project. http://onewitchsway.com/pbp2012/ 
(taken from her website)


What is The Pagan Blog Project?   (The Short Answer)
This project is a way to spend a full year dedicating time each week very specifically to studying, reflecting, and sharing your spiritual and magickal path.    The project consists of a single blog post each week posted on your blog each Friday for the year of 2012 that will involve a topic that relates to Paganism, Witchcraft, magick, spirituality, and so on.   You can use your posts to share your views on a topic, to talk about your own personal experiences, or to act as a catalyst to research a subject that you may not know much about and then share what you learn and how you feel about that.  


When I saw Rowan tweet about the project I was intrigued and filed the info away to look at later (having a 10 week old can do that). When I finally did get a chance to read about it I was very excited! I immediately texted my Greenman and asked if we could do this together. He was just as excited as me! So... now on Fridays my blog will be dedicated to the Pagan Blog Project!!!! :) 
This will 1.) get me back to blogging more often and 2.) help me and my Greenman explore our spiritual side together and with others like us!!!!
  
And the journey starts... 
This week begins with A. Avalon is my A. 
One of the most spiritual thing that has EVER happened to me is meeting my daughter AVALON. 
What most people do not know is that even though she was born only 10 short weeks ago, I met my daughter almost 10 years ago! 
I was sick... working too much, too stressed out, in an abusive relationship, feeling trapped... 
I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that was taking the Calcium from the bones and depositing it into my lungs. It was the second autoimmune disease that had tried to ravish my body. 
I was so frustrated! I am a HEALER! Why was I sick?? I began to work on ME again. I started meditating again, taking time out for me, eating healthy, asking my body why it did not recognize itself? As part of taking care of myself I was making time for ME: reading, getting massages, meditating, ect.

I remember reading a book and saw the name Avalon. I remember thinking that is an AMAZING name! Why was it not used as a girl's name?? The next day I got a massage. I was working with an incredible massage therapist that was also working with connecting my mind, body and spirit again. She was working with energy techniques. I went into a meditative state and journeyed during the massage. I went sooo many places. The place that changed my life is what can best be described as a purple planet. It was there where I first met my daughter. She introduced herself and said she was waiting for me. I was blown away. I went to many other places. Just before my session ended. She popped in to say "the name that you picked for me is perfect." 
I knew then that I was going to have a daughter. I just had no idea when.  I talked to my then fiancee  and he was not enthused.  We broke up shortly after that. In the back of my mind Avalon was always there. I dated a few other guys but never saw Avalon's father. I was briefly engaged to a man that I thought was going to be her father, but it did not last. I even dated a guy who wanted to be Avalon's father so badly he tattoo'd her name over his heart! But none of them were right for me. 


Avalon came often into my meditations, into my spiritual practices, she even signed a Spirit Card I had done! I kept wondering how I was supposed to have a child without a partner. She would ask me how long she had to wait in meditations. I was baffled. 
Fast forward almost 5 years. I was living my life for others... well everyone else, truth be told. I was working 5 jobs, living with/for a teenager who hated me and was pushing EVERY button I had. Then I got sick... again. 
I had a hemipeligic migraine. I was sitting in my son's classroom and I thought I was having a stroke. I lost the use of the right side of my body, I could not see, I could not talk. It was SCARY! 


Through my recovery, I decided I was DONE! I was going to heal, I was going to live for me...  I was going to co-create my life with the Lord and Lady!  
I started working less and living more. I finally really started working on ME! I worked on my spiritual practice, on my health, on my life. 
I decided I had waited long enough to make my shaman's drum and the opportunity presented itself almost immediately. This lead to the opportunity to make drums and travel to Bonnaro to help make drums. I decided taking 2 weeks and several weekends off for me was what I needed and I went for it.  It was a spiritual experience that ended at a Solstice Celebration where I met my Greenman. He is  my match. That Samhain he came to visit, Thanksgiving he moved in, we were pregnant by Valentine's Day! My beautiful Avalon was born on October 16, 2011. We have known from the day we found out we were pregnant our beautiful Avalon was coming into the world. We never doubted for a second. 
I was ready. I was co-creating my life with my partner (my Greenman) and the Lord and Lady. 
We are truly Blessed and none of it would have happened if I had not let go of everything and lived for ME. 

Life is Magickal when you actively co-create your life with the Lord and Lady. I am now starting my Magickal Journey with my Greenman and my Avalon. <3


-Blessed Be