~Song of Beltane~
I am the calm, I am the quickening,
I am the intoxication and the force,
I am the silence, I am the singer,
I am the stallion galloping to its source.
I am the bright pavilion and the feasting,
I am the wedding couple and the bed,
I am the morning chorus and the heartbeat,
I am the goal to which all paths are led.
May life be yours abundantly!
~ Caitlin Matthews
Art: Sharyn Turner, “Beltane”
We lost our beautiful girl…
And we are heartbroken.
In a time of hate
Love is an act of resistance
In a time of fear
Faith is an act of resistance
In a time of misinformation
Education is an act of resistance
In a time of poor leadership
Community is an act of resistance
In a time like this
Joy is an act of resistance . . .
~ Loryn Brantz
Art: Jane Spakowsky
Artist Jane Spakowsky
#valentinesday #love
I swear this is how it started….
The other day, someone re-posted this delightful thing on one of the crafting sites I follow:
So not only did I find myself chuckling, I knew that I had to find the pattern – and make up an army of goblins…
(I mean, as one does, right?)
Turns out this little cutie was made from a pattern from The Beast Peddler, so you’d best believe I purchased the pattern
and downloaded it
And in less than five minutes, I was tracing the pattern onto a scrap of green fabric with a laundry pen
cutting it up
and getting ready to sew it together.
(Well, that ‘sewing together’ part wasn’t nearly as quick! Sewing took way longer than 5 minutes!)
And that’s how I learned that sewing a doll (The Beast Peddler calls them ‘poppets’) this small (5 inches tall and 3.25 inches wide, below the ears) definitely requires some patience and skill if done on the sewing machine 😥😌
And here’s my first attempt:
I am definitely going to make more, but I need to buy more fabric … in whatever colors that goblins happen to be
💚
2024 was a difficult year for me, full of disappointments and featuring many surprising and terrible realizations and revelations about others, and about myself.
Perhaps that is why I have a feeling that 2025 is going to be a year of utter destruction and re-building for me.
But I am trying to remain hopeful, so here is my personal New Years’ wish for you, if you happen to be finding yourself in a similar situation:
Yesterday was such a terrible day that I needed to go for a walk.
For my mental health.
And while on that walk, I found a stick.
A great walking stick!
Well, it was a great walking stick for quite a bit before it fell apart because the rain and all had saturated the wood and made it a bit spongey in the middle…
But for about an hour, it was great, and I appreciated it, even if it didn’t last as long as I had hoped that it would.
And then, I came home and found this:
So yesterday I was that happy goblin…
Today is November 5th.
Which happens to be Election Day in the United States this year.
Of course, I had some other things to say, but honestly?
I’m more than a little concerned, mostly because of the possibilities of the election.
Maybe I should be like my husband says, and not worry ’bout a thing
but as a woman in America
I do
and
I am.
But here’s this poem that came across my feed:
C O U R A G E
I hope you speak up
For yourself and for all
For those who feel worthless
And unheard and small
For the lost and the lonely
The ones with no voice
For those who fall silent
And those with no choice
For the last and the little
The unseen and unheard
The pushed out and hidden
Who don’t speak a word
The beaten and broken
The defeated and done
I hope you use your voice
When they feel they have none
I hope you speak up
Even if you’re afraid
And you may never know
Of the difference you made
Speak for women before you
The burnt and the brave
For those still to come
And ones we could not save.
~Laura Ding-Edwards
I am trying to remain hopeful.
Maybe you are too.
And if you haven’t already, I hope that you vote today.
That is all.
Lately, I’ve been having some medical issues that cause me some pain, so as you might imagine, I haven’t been sleeping as well as I would like.
So, there I was, early this morning, feeling tired and a little miserable, and suddenly, my brain was overcome with an odd ear worm.
I honestly don’t know what could have triggered me to start thinking about this song as I lay there in the dark, silent house.
It wasn’t even a song that I liked – and even worse, I didn’t even know who sang it – but I couldn’t get this song to stop looping it through my head endlessly
At first, it was just the bright little lazy melody, and then I recalled some words:
When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face…
It was ‘Up on the Roof’ by the Drifters.
(^^^ I had to Google that at 4 am)
And I will admit that it has been quite a while since I have had such a weird instance of pandoramancy.
But there you have it.
And once I found out who sang ‘Up on the Roof’ – it led me down a little bit of a nostalgic rabbit hole, which caused me to reach a few connections in my head.
It’s true that I have been able to relate to that message, as this old world *has* been getting me down, and I have been feeling a little emotionally overwhelmed lately.
While it was never one of my favorite songs, it was definitely one of my dad’s favorite songs…
He used to sing it out loud, often while he did yardwork, or while driving, and therefore, it definitely is a song that I could associate with my dad.
Sometimes, my dad would sigh heavily and then joke that he needed to get away, you know, I need to get up on the roof or something...but honestly, I never made that connection as to why he would say that he needed to get up on the roof after a hard day of working construction. (Which, ironically, sometimes required him to be up on a roof all day, working, so you can imagine why I would wonder, ‘why? Does he want to go back to work? 🤔 )
You see, my dad could be kind of a misanthrope, or even a curmudgeon, and yet, thinking it over, I realized suddenly that the song wasn’t so much about the singer being a misanthrope as much as it could be some gentle advice about taking a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed…
And you know what? Thinking on it, I realized that this past Sunday marked 17 years since my father passed away.
~~~
As well, this weird little circle-back thought occurred to me too, which recalled Rumi:
Well, I’ll take it.
