•solstice, sorta•

 

Stress, Side Projects, and Solstices

Today isn't what I expected, but that's not exactly anything unusual.  I'd hoped to share an exciting new recipe, but life and the plague sort of shoved me to the wayside.  And even though things did not work out how I'd planned, I still want to share something new.

For quite some time I've wished for a place to speak about both the complexity and simplicity of modern spirituality and paganism.  Somewhere focused but inclusive, somewhere just a bit less froofroo than the average.

After talking it over for months in a sort of hypothetical sense ("...someone should start something that...") my dear friend Sparrow and I decided to just jump in.  And thus you have the extremely abbreviated origins of Witchery Wednesday.

Please check it out, I hope you can find something to enlighten or entertain.   And on that note, I wish you a Blessed Yule and Happy Hibernal Solstice.

Gift Confusion and Belated Yuletide Wishes

My mother’s gift giving habits are a little…odd.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but still.  She tends to be completely stumped on what to get for everyone and comes up with some interesting solutions.  Case in point:  Last year for Yule I received nothing from her but Hello Kitty stuff.  And I couldn’t help but laugh about that because beyond the fact that she still occasionally refers to me as “the baby” of the family, it seems that she apparently also thinks I am five.

This year she gave me a Hello Kitty dog toy.  I don't have a dog.  Now I don't know what to think.

 

Anyway, here’s hoping you all had a wonderful Yule, a happy Hibernal Solstice, and/or a very merry winter holiday of your choosing.

A Winter's Reflection

Traditionally speaking it makes little sense, but traditions being what you make of them, Winter Solstice feels like New Year’s to me.  There is just something about it.  Maybe it’s the lack of light and the depth of cold.  It could be because  I am a gardener at heart, and it is the halfway point between putting the garden to bed in October and starting seeds in February.  Or perhaps it’s that the Solstices and Equinoxes have always been the most important part of my spiritual path.  I don’t know, but Yule, for me, is an end to things…and a beginning. 

I find this day to be so much about reflection.  Time to sort through all that has happened in the past year, to reflect on my life and realize what is meaningful and worth keeping, and what I need to discard.  I don’t really do resolutions, but treat it as more a sort of winter version of spring cleaning for my mind. 

Winding down now, my day has been full of quiet contemplation, along with a few festive gifts and snacks.  It has not turned out exactly as I had planned or expected (case in point, as I type this it is thundering, which is not exactly the most winterish of things in southwest Ohio…), but knowing that this holiday is often about change, I can’t help but believe that all is as it should be.

So, as a part of my quiet celebration, my wish for you is a Blessed Yule, Happy Winter Solstice, and a Merry Whatever Winter Holiday You Choose.  Have fun and be safe, people!