Keeping Busy While Stuck At Home – Social Distancing and Witchy Crafts

 

Social Distancing. Self-Isolation. Quarantine. Whatever you call it, most of us are stuck at home for the foreseeable future.

At the beginning of the month, my kids both had colds, and as the panic over Covid-19 was ramping up, I made an effort to not add to the problem, and decided to keep them home a couple of days until their coughs and runny noses subsided. They were better by the weekend, and I was happy to be able to send them back to school on Monday. Then, on Sunday night, the province closed all public schools. All this is a long way of saying, that in my house, we are on day 15 of social distancing isolation.

These days, most businesses are closed for the next couple of weeks, and we are in the middle of what would have been spring break, so the schools aren’t putting anything out until April to help with the kids education. And since we are doing our part to help #flattenthecurve or #plankthecurve or whatever the hashtag is now, we are finding creative ways to keep busy that involve less screen time, and thus, less fighting.

Shattered

Well, maybe not shattered, but definitely startled, and a little upset. This morning, while moving some stuff to our new house, my new hawk’s eye pendulum fell off the counter and broke. The crystal broke, and the beaded section holding the hamsa at the other end broke as well.

I had already fixed the hamsa end by the time I took the pic. Still heartbreaking, tho

For the first few moments all I could do was stare. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t that far down, and I couldn’t believe that the whole thing had just broken.

What now? Do I replace it? Do I try to fix it? I have only had this pendulum for about two weeks, and already it was one of my favourites. And now it was just … gone.

The break was clean, I could fix it. But the question was, should I? For most of my life, I have heard that once a crystal is broken, that’s it for that job. Then it moves on to some other purpose, either given back to the earth or utilized for some other project.

It can still be used as a pendulum in it’s current … shortened state. It will still work just as well, but at the same time, I know I could fix it because the break was so clean (I am thinking it was an existing imperfection that allowed for the break).

Another issue to consider is that with both protection symbols breaking in the same moment, I cannot ignore the possibility that the fall and the break were the protection symbols doing their job. This is a new house with no protections built in as in my old house. I haven’t even had a chance to do a new house cleansing yet.

The practical side of my brain says that I am overtired, and jittery from lugging boxes, and what I really need is to chill and meditate a little. If we go the protection route, then the stone was likely protecting me from myself.

I still don’t know what I am going to do. There is an epoxy that I can buy that will fix the pendulum like new. Or I could buy a replacement crystal point. I will definitely need to meditate on it before I do anything.

Three Years Later

It’s been a long time. When I shut this website down three years ago,   I did it because there had been some family turmoil regarding my practise/faith/whathaveyou, and I didn’t want to make it worse.

A few days ago, I turned 40.

It’s a big milestone, if you believe in that kind of thing. I have been very contemplative over the past few weeks, and something that I am starting to feel very strongly about is how little I care about things that used to bother me. I don’t care about judgments. I don’t care about pleasing anyone else. I don’t care about living my life for the pleasure of others.

I’ve lost myself in the past few years, and I want her back. I miss me. I miss having a space to vent my thoughts and feelings. I miss having a space where I can explore my practise, and where it doesn’t really matter if I start a project and then forget about it a few months down the line (we’ve discovered that that’s ADHD, btw).

I was on YouTube today marvelling at how different the Pagan Community is today from when I was active online (SO so long ago). I have to say that I do understand a bit better the middle aged witches with the ever etched smirk as all we newbies tried to impress each other with our knowledge and ‘experience’. 😂

I do have to add, one of the things that still shocks me is how little has changed in 20 years. Practitioners with a few years under their belts are still having to explain that Witchcraft/Wicca isn’t satanic? Why? That rumour is from the 80s. None of them where alive during the Satanic Panic, they shouldn’t have to still be talking about it.

But I digress. I don’t know how often I will post here in the coming year. Maybe more. Maybe less. But I have decided that I want this space to be available. I want it to be waiting for me for when I need it, and I want it to be available to anyone else who might stumble upon anything interesting.

Cheers to new beginnings. 🥂

ReBlog: Screw Finding Your Passion

Remember back when you were a kid? You would just do things. You never thought to yourself, “What are the relative merits of learning baseball versus football?” You just ran around the playground and played baseball and football. You built sand castles and played tag and asked silly questions and looked for bugs and dug up grass and pretended you were a sewer monster.

Source: Screw Finding Your Passion

I am so feeling this article right now.  I have dozens of hobbies and passions (long time readers will already know that), and they all take their turn garnering my full attention when the mood strikes.  I have always felt a little left out when folks find out that they are “insert discipline here”.  I am me.  I am a Jack of All Trades – screw being a master of any of it.

I love what I do in the fits and spurts that I do it in.  I am suddenly feeling inspired to write up a new bio.  You can just call me Jack.

What Do I Want to Do with the Rest of My Life? — Melanie Falick

What Do I Want to Do with the Rest of My Life? — Melanie Falick.

I loved this.  I need to make my own list.  Big and small – first two entries:

1) Work as a Spa Reviewer
2) Live in a little stone cottage by the sea

Life, Leaving Social Media, NaNo, and the Closing of the Year

Life decided that it needed my full attention the last little while, and I finally bit the bullet and closed my facebook account.  Leaving FB for good is a little like your New Year’s resolution shouted to the heavens as the party counts down to midnight.  After six and a half years, I know it won’t be easy to stay away.  My short term goal is to make it until January.

Even if I go back then to check in, I feel like I should have enough distance to not have it become a huge part of my life anymore.  Which is the ultimate goal. I can still be reached on Google+ and on Instagram.  They don’t have enough of a draw to become the time sink that FB was.

In the snippets of time that FB used to fill, I have begun learning French.  I have plans to participate in NaNoWriMo this year after a 4 year hiatus, and I am enrolling in the local university.  It’s a pretty awesome feeling to spend my free time doing something useful … useful, AND not laundry!

I am still knitting, and I have a draft of a custom shawl pattern in the works.  I am pretty excited about that.

It is a bit weird to go back to writing after so long away, I haven’t fully embraced my inner story teller in a long while. I have recently dug out my character creation sheets, and hope to spend some time in October fleshing out my story beyond a vague idea.

Wish me luck!  And if any of you out there are into the insanity that is NaNoWriMo, my user name is phae_talon.

Those Things That Make Up Stuff

I may have under estimated how much of my time would be taken up by trying to pack up house and move with two littles running around.  I haven’t managed to get out with my camera in a while.  But blog projects are flexible, right?  That the point of the whole ‘Blogging Without Obligation’ deal anyway.

It has come to the time of year that I am getting it in my head to write a few thinkie posts.  First up will be a look at where I am in the spectrum of ‘Paganism’ again.  I have pretty well completely withdrawn from the online community … it stopped actually feeling like a community some time ago.  One thing that I have noticed is that rudimentary Paganisms seem to have been absorbed by the homesteading/handiworks communities, which I think is awesome.

I love that concepts like living with gratitude, appreciating the moment, meditation, and a wholistic point of view are no longer things that scream “Pagan”.  It’s just something people do.  I guess if I had to think of a hope for modern Paganism, it would be that it stop being a thing that people noticed as different.  I believe that is slowly happening.  It makes me smile.

Here. Have a Flower.

End of GP Gratitude

Happy Equinox, folks!  Today marks the end of the Gratitude Project for another year.  As such, here are my last few posts.

Day 50: I am grateful for pedicures.  It has been a while since I could reach my own feet.

51: I am grateful for all the awesome things that there are to share with my daughter.  Today, we are going to share a classic movie: The Wizard of Oz.

52: I am grateful for the peace I’ve managed to find in my life.