“‘Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
‘Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of me,
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we’ll all live together with a love that is real.”

shaker song – elder joseph brackett – 1848

from World Prayers

Download a lovely version of it – Simple Gifts

As I’ve mentioned, overtime has been cut at work and I am back to working Sunday through Thursday, making my “weekend” Friday and Saturday.

My friend “E” came up from her home 4 hours away and spent about 20 hours total with us.  “E” was one of the very first friends I met when we moved to this town in the December of my Junior year of High School.  I could not love her more if she were my own blood.  My husband loves her “like family” as well and she is an Aunt to my girls.  When she called late Tuesday night I knew something was wrong and I am sorry to say that she’s been having a rough time. 

I offered her “whatever she wanted” to eat.  She arrived about 10am Friday morning and I already had a pot of pasta sauce simmering on the stove as it was what she requested.  We had a nice day and a restful evening and we were happy to be a “safe haven” for her and surround her with our love and affection.

She left a little after 6am on Saturday and I was very sad to see her go but my spirit is lifted by the knowledge that she may be coming up in September. 

I tackled a little more decluttering and by 2:30pm Lady Rose and AngelGirl were up for a visit.  I do not get to see my Goddess-daughter very often and I was thrilled to see her, albeit briefly, before her dad picked her up in the early evening so she could attend a sleepover at a friend’s house.

Lady Rose and I spent our time chit-chatting and working out some more of the details regarding our plans for moving 2Witches to its own domain.  Our target date for a grand opening is still at Samhain.  We also did some “free tarot readings” which will be appearing over the next couple of weeks over at Stir the Cauldron and we laughed a lot.

It was a blessed and much needed respite from my depression and anxiety to have some of my favorite people around me. 

Sometimes I feel very very lucky

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:friendship

Well I spent Friday with my dear friend “E” from high school.  We spent the day gabbing, I showed her the joy of Viva Piñata, we had a lovely dinner (if I say so myself), went to Princess Nibble’s camp show and then came home and watched Madagascar which my friend had never seen.

She left this morning a little after 6 am, I did a little more clutter purging work and have been hanging out with Lady Rose since about 2:30 this afternoon.

The evening is earmarked to do a boatload of “free tarot readings” for one of our side projects Stir the Cauldron while sipping on root beer floats.

But, I took a moment to read a few of my regular blogs, including 37 Days (who has a book coming out in September, Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally) who shared a video that her teenage daughter made in an animation summer camp. Emma drew 46 picures to create 4.8 seconds of film. Her mother is proud and rightfully so and puts forth the request …

“What would thrill her beyond belief? If you forwarded this post or the link to the video to all your friends and asked them to watch. She is shyly asking how many page views the video has had on YouTube since I uploaded it late last night. Can you watch it several thousand times and pass it along?”

So what do you say readers? Can you watch this video, leave a comment or two and pass it along to your friends and readers?

Hugs

Mama Kelly

a 4 second short

Written by Mama KellyTags:video

Yes I’ve been quiet of late. 

Those of you who read this blog regularly can probably guess that I am, again, in a deep funk and I’m not sure what triggered it or how to pull myself out of it.

What I find so distressing about this is that my time at Womongathering seems to have made things worse in a way instead of better.  It is almost as if I am feeling my depression and anxiety and overall unease more intensely than I had been prior to my “vacation.”

Don’t get me wrong, my time away was invaluable.  While I was there I felt more “me” than I had felt in years.  But as Lady Rose told me in her infinate wisdom – 3.5 days can’t begin to offset 14 years of stress.  So, I trust her that its okay that I didn’t walk out of Womongathering transformed.

I am sure it has not been made any better by the fact that I have been a very ”bad” witch and have done very little to hold on to the peace of my time away.

I have not used my altar.

I have not done much self-Reiki.

I have not prayed.

Even my journalling, both here on the blog and in my handwritten diary, has been sparse at best.

I probably need to face the reality that my depression and anxiety levels are high enough for me to need to go back on meds again.  I have tried to avoid this route, but the past 10 months have been rough (better now but still… ) and I think I’m “stuck” in survival mode.

Anyway, I came across this video this morning. The premise is to set yourself goals to meet over the course of the next 100 days that relate to your spiritual path.

I am looking forward to watching it again more thoroughly when I get home from work.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama Kelly

It was announced Thursday at work (a little after 12pm) that all overtime was cancelled effective immidiately and to please make any necessary changes to our schedules. Generally I work 6 days a week when OT is in effect and even worked 84 days in a row this past Winter/Spring. I was not pleased about the last minute notice that my paychecks were going to be significantly smaller for the forseeable future (they usually bring OT back in the fall) but I was positively livid when I was told that I was expected to work Sun-Thurs as my FT schedule or lose the benefits of being able to work on a somewhat less hateful task each week (translation more time doing cold-calling).

I have since made peace with this news and am looking forward to the benefits that having a Friday off will hold:

• I will have my day off on a day that typically finds Mr. Grumpy working outside the home
• I will be able to look into taking a day class for the Fall semester instead of only considering night classes
• I will have a day with fewer child-based interuptions and can use it to work on the blog, work on homework, or even work on a book idea that has been coming together more and more (I have a good concept and a working title and everything)
• I will have a day that allows me to run to the post office, take care of Dr. appointments, or tend to other tasks which are difficult to do when your only day off is a Saturday

In other news I spent the bulk of my day off today cleaning the house for company tomorrow evening. The entire downstairs is done and I even did some clutter control as I went. I got rid of 3 kitchen-size bags of trash (mostly stuff from the kids art supply cabinet, broken toys, and so forth. I filled 2 plastic supermarket shopping bags full of goodies for the 4-year-old daughter of a woman I work with.

I even cleared the downstairs a bit with sound, walking around the house ringing a bell to break up any stagnant chi. I lit a cake-scented candle in the kitchen before heading upstairs to replace the smell of cleaning supplies with a warm happy yummy type of smell instead.

Now, I am off to work on the upstairs. More general tidy (with a dash of shoving things in our master bedrom) and a cleaning of the bathroom. If I can get it all done, tomorrow we can head over to the community pool for a couple of hours before its time to each shower, dress, and generally beautify for the reason behind all of this cleaning.

Tomorrow we are going out with various family members for dinner to celebrate Mr. Grumpy’s birthday and then coming back to the house for cake. I do not get along all that well with my family for various reasons, but the PC part of me will blame it on the fact that while age-wise they are between my father and I, they are part of his generation on the family tree and they are closer to him than they have ever been to me.

Translation … Dad will have a good time, the kids will have a good time as my cousins’ kids are the same age as my kids (though Miss Artistic is the oldest by a couple of years), and GamerDude & I will end the night (as we generally do) feeling a bit like outsiders. I’d like to say that I’m used to having family-time evoke these feelings, but I never seem to get over feeling a bit bruised by it.

Oh well. At least there’s a restaurant meal in it for us. LOL

Wish you all well

Be Blessed

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:birthday

R.I.P. George Carlin
1937-2008

As I’ve mentioned here and on twitter I am using whatever free time I have this summer to do a thorough top to bottom clean and de-clutter of the upstairs of the house (where the family and I dwell).  The purging is going well.  Tomorrow is Mr. Grumpy’s birthday and any cleaning energies over the next couple of days will need to be focused on getting the house clean enough for company. Saturday we are going out with the extended family to a local restaurant to celebrate.  People will be meeting up here both before we go out to eat and afterwards for cake.  The purging will recommence next week

I have accomplished a good deal over the course of the past 2 weekends.  I have gotten rid of over 500 individual items from my house: bras and books and baby clothes; bathrobes and bathing suits.  I have sold a few on Amazon.com and have another 60 or so listed for sale.  This money is earmarked for my Holiday Shopping fund.

Some of it was hard – the baby clothes were often stoked lovingly before being placed into the donate pile.  A few items were “rescued” when the memories they evoked were simply too vivid.  Some of it was easier – the boxes of hardcover books that were mom’s but had been in the attic since we moved to this house when I was 16, but were still mom’s nonetheless.  Some of it was a piece of cake – fluff books and paperback novels I’ll never re-read.

Now, bear in mind the purging is part of a larger goal.  I need to be able to turn 2 bedrooms and a living room into 3 bedrooms (and no living room).  The plan is to begin in the attic and to create enough “holes” that I can move other items (that will no longer be used) from the living room and “master bedroom”. This means I need to open up enough space in the attic to hold a couch and entertainment center.  We have to be able to move enough out of the bedroom to allow us to set up GamerDude’s computer system in there instead (odds are we’ll have to install some kind of shelving for the printer(s) and scanner). 

The grand end result?  The living room will be emptied, repainted and filled with Misss Artistic’s bed, a dresser, and the TV armoire.  The finishing touch will be gifting Miss Artistic with my late mother’s drafting table to encourage her in her artistic pursuits.  When I tell you she will totally “freak” about the last thing I am understating it by a long shot.  This is one of those things she would never even dream of asking for.  Imagining the look on her face is enough to always make me find the energy to lift another box or clear another shelf.

That being said, it is more work that I had even anticipated.  It means digging through boxes, emptying out drawers, sorting closets and getting rid of ALOT of “stuff”.  The upside is that my “stuff” can help a lot of people.  The clothes that no longer fit the girls, the books we’re never going to read again, can boost the content of my local library system and help impoverished or even homeless kids. 

If nothing else as I work, when I am not buzy imagining a very happy teenager, I keep the thought that I am clearing out the old to make way for the new …

• for new beginnings
• for new growth
• for new hope
• for new dreams

May you all be blessed with “the new”

Mama Kelly

PS  In other news I have become completely and hopelessly addicted to a stupid game I purchased at GamerDude’s suggestion – Viva Piñata

Written by Mama KellyTags:clutter

Put this into the category of I couldn’t make this up if I tried ….

“A new national web campaign that encourages young people to post strip-tease videos of themselves as a way of raising clothing donations for homeless youths has quickly run into a firestorm of protest from some of the groups it is supposed to benefit.”

“They asked young people to post videos of themselves stripping to music. In exchange, clothing companies would provide donations of new clothes based on the number of times the videos were viewed.

Called “Strip2Clothe,” the campaign carries the tagline, “You take off yours, we donate ours.”"

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune

I rarely find myself on the side of Catholic Charities.  In fact, my only association with them in my life is that through them that I was adopted 39 years ago this coming November.

Rebecca Lentz, a spokeswoman for the group called it “distasteful and inappropriate and exploitative.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Yes the body is beautiful and natural.  Yes our sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of.  But in this day and age of internet predators and easy access to child pornography asking minors to strip for charity seems misguided at best and potentially very very dangerous.

Strip2Clothe is sponsored by VirginMobile and the site promises “a new piece of clothing” donated for every video uploaded as well as donations for every 5 video views as well as for text messages sent in.

Yes posting striptease videos is alluring and bound to attract attention.

Yes sex sells.

But is this really the way we, as a society, want to take care of our homeless?

What does it say about us, as a society, that this is our “solution to the problem?”

Your thoughts are welcome.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

PS Thanks to GoldenFeri for the heads up

UPDATE:

I played around on the site and the video submission form does require you to be 18 or over to participate.  However, I think we all know that underage kids are fudging their birthday to “play along.” 

Anything that allows (even if it technically doesn’t encourage) potentially underage teenagers to use stripping to elicit clothing donations for the homeless just rubs me very wrong.

Written by Mama KellyTags:charity

I praise every god in my daily prayers,
leaving not a single one out.
The universe does not exclude any of them, so how can I?
Praise, praise, to the infinite number of Blessed Ones.
Praise, praise, let there be praise of them all.

|  Source: “A Book of Pagan Prayer” © 2002 Ceisiwr Serith

 

I am back to working 6 days a week and my body is rebelling.  I spent most of my day off finishing what I started last weekend and went through every book we had decided to “get rid of” and looked up every single one on Amazon.com, listing what I could for sale and boxing the rest up in my hallway.

For the record that means I literally handled over a hundred of our books today.  And a couple dozen VHS tapes.  And a good 30 kids books.  No wonder I’m so tired (and sore)

Tomorrow will find me mailing out the first few orders I’ve received for my used merchandise and itemizing the books we will be bringing to donate to our local library Tuesday night.  The rest of the week is earmarked to a general houselceaning and tidy as we will be having company Saturday for Mr. Grumpy’s 68th birthday.

There is a practical side to all of my labor.  We live surrounded in clutter and I believe it feeds directly into the nervous tense energy in the home.  This purging is long overdue – most of the books I am getting rid of were my late mother’s and she has been gone for 10 years.  I have to clear out a lot of clutter in order to do what needs to be done in order to disassemble our little private living room and turn it into a bedroom for Miss Artistic.

But there is another side to this as well.

My sweat is an offering to the Nameless One which, for me, wears the face of Lady & Lord.

With every item I am able to let go of I am reminded that I am clearing out the old to (literally and figuratively) make way for the new. 

If I want a new life I have to be willing to do whatever it takes to make it reality.  This purging is just a first step in that journey.

This week I am grateful for:

• Miss Artistic seemingly doing so much better than a couple of months ago.
• Princess Nibbles being accepted into the gifted program for 3rd grade (which will take her through 5th grade if she does the work).
• My body allowing me to do the physical labor I am doing - despite its loud protestation.
• The fact that I am slowly beginning to sleep a bit deeper and even dream again.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:prayer

In one of my recent posts I was talking about some of the de-cluttering work I am doing around the house.  One of that post’s commenters, Stephanie Bennett Vogt, shared that she has published a book dealing with that very same topic.  I am happy to feature it here as it not only deals with the physical aspects of clutter, but also the emotional and spiritual effects as well.  I came across some lines when I was using the “search inside” feature at Amazon.com which I found very much on point

“This book defines spiritual clutter as anything that gets in the way of opening up to our source of innate wisdom and divine guidance.”

“When we live our lives on automatic pilot we lose touch with the things and activities that make our hearts sing, and cringe.”

The book also contains simple actions to take (rituals) to work on releasing and letting go, talks about the use of altar work in this process, and gives a lot of practical advise on both simple steps to start clearing out the clutter in your life.  It touches on affirmations and gratitude work and seems to be quite a lovely book about reclaiming one’s life not only from a messy house but from the deeper emotional and spiritual issues that get in the way of accomplishing the goal in the first place.

Lady Rose & I were recently talking about what to buy with an Amazon gift certificate earned through the generous purchases of you, our readers.  We considered a tarot deck (to use in all our 2Witches videos, etc), we considered a book on blogging, but after skimming what content I could online I feel compelled to buy this book.  Especially as Lady Rose and I are both working on clearing not only physical clutter in our homes, but emotional and spiritual clutter as well.

Besides which if I buy it now, it can be here in time for her next visit.

Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are

As an aside … Mrs.B of Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom is hosting a comment contest on her blog. As part of her own de-cluttering efforts she is going to be raffling off books she is getting rid of. The first raffle is for the book Witch on the Go: A Book of Spells to Take With You by Cal Garrison.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:books, clutter

As I’ve been stating on Twitter I spent much of the past weekend cleaning.

The family & I live with my father (affectionately known on this blog as Mr. Grumpy).  I won’t bore you with the whys and wherefores but will tell you that 4 people living in 3 rooms and a bath leads to a bit of overcrowding and a lot of clutter.  Currently the set up is that GamerDude & I have a bedroom, the girls share a bedroom, and the 3rd room is a living room/computer room.

As the last couple of years have gone by it has become more and more obvious that Miss Artistic & Princess Nibbles really do need to each have their own room.  The plan therefore is to disassemble our living room and turn it into a bedroom for Miss Artistic, as well as re-paint the “old room” to create a special place for Princess Nibbles when we are done.

In order to make this work will require a lot of physical labor on my part.  I have to create room in the attic to move other stuff into for storage.  I have to reorganize our bedroom to allow GamerDude’s desktop(s) to move in with us there.  I have to empty every drawer, closet, and box. 

We have to pare down how much we own.  We have to stop bring more stuff into a space that doesn’t have the room to support it.  I have to get creative about storage.  I have to get better about cleaning.

Much will be thrown away, even more will be donated, and some will be sold on Amazon.com or brought over to my local Sell it on Ebay store.

The reward (other than progress toward achieving the eventual goal) is finding things I forgot about, little treasures from my past.

Some of what I found in this round of cleaning:

• books that belonged to my grandparents (I adore old books!!!)
• notes and writings from when Lady Rose & I were briefly working on creating our own tradition of Wicca, some of which will be finding their way to 2Witches
• lots of other print outs that can be used if I follow through with my idea of creating a Book of Shadows (in a decorative scrapbooking kind of way)
• and about 30 days worth of brief journal entries from 1995, when we got our first PC as a married couple and discovered the joy and obsession that is the internet

It was the later that really drew my attention and I thought I’d share some excerpts here:

April 15, 1995

Led the Circle at (Lady Rose’s) tonight … everyone seemed to really like the meditation.  We did 3 workings  including one to bring Lady Rose’s dog home who had run away.  On the way I saw a cloud all by itself in the shape of a small dog, immidiately “knew” that M___ was still okay and took it as a good sign.

April 17, 1995

M___ is home!!!

April 20, 1995

Had a dream last night.  Was with (Lady Rose) and her mom came over to give me gifts – feathers.  One was grey with blue in the “center”, one was opalescent with a spider’s web pattern, and one was cream w/ purple.  In the dream receiving these was extremely significant, like getting a sign.

April 26, 1995

Did a candle spell yesterday for (Lady Rose & her hubby) to help them adopt a baby.  I took a plain white candle and annointed it with frankinscense & some of (Miss Artistic’s) spit.  Using very simple forms I carved a happy baby, two happy people, & a heart.

Used the chant “As this candle doth burn and glow, bring a baby to their hearth and home” (copyright Mama Kelly 1995)

When the candle first started burning the wick got a bead of silver on it and the thought entered my mind “pregnant with dew”.  Also the candle (a 10 hr. votive) burned a hole straight down the middle in about 30 minutes.  I hope its a sign … I hope … I hope.

 

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:clutter, memories

Today I am grateful for freedom. 

No more, no less.  Freedom.

May all the world one day be free!

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:prayer