So obviously I’m not doing too well with this 365 day challenge. So I’m going to continue on through, but do it intermittantly, rather than every day. Makes it less of a challenge, but gives me topics to talk about when I can’t think of anything else.
I’m going to combine Days 8 and 9 together because I just don’t think I can blab on about stuff that makes me sad and walk away from it feeling very positive 
And, there’s not a whole lot that makes me sad – there’s more things that make me angry or frustrated than sad. So here goes:
Things that make me sad
Animal abuse.
Child abuse.
People against free will or basic human rights.
Money.
Mess (although I am admittedly a messy person, which frustrates the hell out of me).
Pain.
Things that make me happy
My husband.
My pets.
My family.
My house.
Driving!
Feeling secure and safe.
Being able to express myself freely.
Being openly Pagan and my family and friends being totally cool with it.
Games.
Computers <3
Art and design.
Cleanliness – not just in the basic sense, but when things look and feel clean.
Lame post, next one will be better
Sorry for being MIA for so long. I actually completely forgot about the whole blogging thing in amongst everything that I’ve had going on.
In August and September, I was helping to prepare, organise and enjoy the Australian Wiccan Conference – we had an absolute ball. It was an amazing energy with incredible people that I’ll never forget. Considering it was my first large gathering, included my first large ritual (ie more than 5-6 people) and my first national gathering, it was a real eye-opener for me, and a really emotional, spiritual experience. Loved every minute of it. The energy was just awesome.
So most weekends in August and the start of September was taken up with preparing decorations and small items for the Conference. I loved every minute of helping to organise the event and would do it again in a heartbeat.
My parents left for Europe on Saturday just been and it’s been really quite strange without them around already (it’s only been 4 days out of a 3-week trip!). I’m trying to keep an eye on my brother after last time without being too overbearing. I know that was over two years ago but I’m still not sure if he’s grown up much since then.
Unfortunately, at 2:00am Monday morning, Michael received a phone call that his Grandma had passed away. 2011 has not been a good year for us in terms of loss – I’ve lost more people close to me in the last 6 months than most people do in 5+ years. We’re not sure when the funeral will be, most likely next Monday or Tuesday, but that will mean a trip to Adelaide for Michael – we can’t both afford to go so just him and his sister will be attending.
So really, it’s been a hectic couple of months, hence my only posting now. Hopefully life will get back on track a little more and we can live some normalcy for a while. I’m trying to get in touch with myself again, spiritually. Finding it difficult to focus with everything going on but will try my best.
I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I last blogged. In a way, it feels like yesterday; in other ways, it feels like millennia.
A lot of things in my life appear this way – that they’ve been around for such a short time yet at the same time feel like they’ve been around my whole life. Like Michael, owning our home, etc. It all feels like it happened yesterday. At the start of this month, it’s been two years since I started my job. Two years. I can’t get over it, it’s unreal. In August, it’ll be three years since we moved back to Tassie, and two years since we got married in November.
I heard a theory about time, which made a lot of sense to me. I don’t know who originally said it, but it was essentially that 1 year of a 10 year old’s life is 1/10th of their lifetime, whereas 1 year of a 50 year old’s life is 1/50th of their lifetime. This is why the years seem to get quicker as we get older, because every year is a smaller fraction of our current existence. I thought it was a pretty interesting concept.
Onto other things, and we (being me and a few girls from the Tas Pagan Alliance) had a full moon ritual the other night at the beach. It was cold, but an amazing experience. This was my first (in over 10 years of identifying as Pagan and around 8 of practicing) group ritual, and it was so nice to have the company, as well as the combined energies of four fabulous women whom I adore. They’re all so strong yet fragile in their own ways, and every time I meet up with them I feel so blessed because I find out just a little more about their lives, and we all open up that little bit more.
Preparation for the Australian Wiccan Conference in September (OMG!) is all under way and I’m so excited – this will be my first Conference so I’m really looking forward to it. It seems like it’s going to be an awesome time.
All this, combined with upcoming pub moots and women’s circles = a very spiritual, ‘coming into my own’ year. I’m feeling very into my Craft at the moment, even if a lot of the time it’s just thinking about what I’d like to be doing
Anyway, I’m blabbing, I’m really only posting to get another blog post in this month, otherwise it’d never happen.
… is like asking a dog to make you a cup of tea. Not going to happen.
I’ve held off writing this post for sometime (almost a month) because I didn’t want to cause any tension. But, I figured it’s my blog, my opinions and I’ll say what I like.
I’ll preface this, though, by saying I have absolutely no issue with people’s religious and/or spiritual beliefs. I figure you should be able to do/believe/think what you want, as long as you’re not hurting anyone (including yourself). This goes for atheists/agnostics too. So please don’t take this personally if you’re a religious person – unless you’re someone who is doing this sort of thing on a daily basis. What’s “this”, you may ask? Here goes…
So my Nana’s funeral was almost a month ago, on the 16th May. I obviously attended, along with my family. The funeral was held at an Anglican church and, my Nana and her immediate family being Anglican, this made sense. I had no issue being in the church, as it was a reflection of my Nana and her wishes. Fine.
However, my Uncle, who is a minister and travels the world ‘spreading the gospel’, got up and said a few words about Nana and all that, etc. But then proceeded into a full-on preach session to the whole congregation, who were there to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of my Nana, not to be preached at. He went on about how he had Jesus and God in his head but not in his heart, until he went to to the Vietnam war and found Jesus there, and went on about if we don’t have Jesus in our hearts, then we should definitely turn to Him and embrace Him. Furthermore, he offered little cards full of information on how to accept Jesus into your life following the funeral.
W. T. F.
Firstly, I don’t like being preached to. This behaviour infuriates me. Fair enough, believe what you want to believe, but don’t shove your beliefs down my throat. I like to think I have a pretty solid foundation of my own ethical, moral and religious beliefs, and I don’t need someone else telling me how to think.
Secondly, this was not the time to be preaching to people – this was my Nana’s (his MOTHER’S) funeral, not a Sunday church congregation. I found it highly disrespectful to be using the lectern at a funeral as a podium for preaching the gospel, even if my Nana was a religious person.
Not only this, but the priest actually endorsed my uncle’s tangent and, when he’d finished his ramble, said, “Yes, a lesson for all – if you don’t have Jesus in your heart, do it!”.
And here is where my major problem stands. Whenever someone tries to pull this shit on me, I always walk away thinking, “But why? Why should I?”. There’s never any reason given as to why I should accept Jesus into my life. Only that I should do it, and if I don’t I’m a “bad” person. I never say anything directly because, as I’ve said above, I have nothing against people’s religious beliefs – believe what you want to. But seriously, if someone hands you a pill and says, “Take this”, you don’t just do it, you ask, “Why?”. You need to have reasons for it, even if it’s something that only makes sense to you personally.
/end rant.
