Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Because this is important.
Because this is important.
First, I woke up with this song stuck in my head:
This song is so…80’s? 90’s? …even though it’s actually a new song from a band called Walk the Moon.
I love it already, probably because it has that jaunty hook of a chorus.
As well, there was something nostalgic about it for me, even before I found myself Googling that obvious throwback of a video this morning.
Even though I cannot dance very well, somehow I wouldn’t doubt it if Someone was in the mood to dance this morning. ❤
~~~
And then, there was the fact that my friend Tracy posted this quote for me this morning:
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity.”
― Gilda Radner
She used to use this icon that playfully stated that her daily goal was ‘to do Gods’ work’ at least once a day.
Well, Tracy.
I think that you did.
❤
How strange that I was looking for something else on Google and this post (from a blog that I’ve never read before) just popped up.
But surprisingly, the message of this post is relevant to something that I had been thinking about quite recently.
It was as if the Universe were to say to me: “Hey. You there. Here’s a sneaky ton of bricks for you. Are you paying attention?”

Your days, your lives of hiding are over. There was a purpose to hiding your light in the past, but it is a new day. You are safe. The world is safe now for what you have to share. If you are in your balance of masculine and feminine, and you are trusting your wisdom and knowledge, which, if you are reading these words, you are trusting more and more, you will attract the right energies, the right people to you and your teachings.
No more excuses, that you are not ready, or you have issues, problems, or someone else is keeping you from your spiritual work. Many of you are walking your talk, and even so you have your moments of doubt. As long as we are human there will be doubts.
Your teaching may take the form of classes, writing a book, a website, a blog, art, music…
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Out on my walk today, I’d been having thoughts about Mr. Wednesday.
And two songs immediately came up on shuffle from my playlist
One after the other
Both are by Fever Ray:
and
I am trying to see the Quadrantid Meteor shower that is supposedly peaking in the northeast corner of the sky tonight.
I’ve heard it said that the moon being almost full (99% waxing gibbous) will make it too bright to see much
if anything at all
but I am hopeful.
Here’s a nice picture from the above website:
What’s even nicer is that this picture was taken by photographer Jeff Berkes, over the Florida Keys in early January 2012.
Lately, I have been suffering from a lot of social anxiety.
As a result, I haven’t been feeling up to venturing very far from home, unless it is an absolute must.
Today, I resolved to go beyond my routine of just walking my dog, and actually go out in public and allow myself to be around other people for a change.
It all began with my having promised a friend that I would participate in a Christmas gift drive that she began coordinating last week, so I went out to purchase the gifts that she’d requested.
I’d also promised my kid that we’d visit our favorite bookstore while we were out this afternoon, and so, off we went.
~~~
We looked through several stores, but we saved the bookstore visit for last.
So there we were in the bookstore, and we were perusing the gift book tables.
While zie kept busy looking at comic books (hir favorite), a book caught my eye.
In this book, a Maya Angelou quote seemed to jump out at me:
Then, a peculiar thing happened.
Even though I’d heard/read that quote before – and even though the part about changing one’s attitude should have struck me as personally relevant – I smirked and muttered aloud,
“Well we all know that I have problems with change, so…”
But before I could even finish that sentence, I turned
And I immediately stubbed my toe hard against the table.
Then, upon backing away from the table,
I stumbled over the corner of another book display
that jutted out at an odd angle into the middle of the aisle.
O.0
~~~
OK.
Point taken, Sir.
Lesson learned.
❤
This week has been difficult, and full of complex emotions, especially regarding my closest relationships.
Upon leaving the house this morning, this song was the first to come up:
…which struck me as a clue-by-four concerning one of my particularly thorny yet relevant relationship issues.
After some deep breaths, I realized that I might as well let the song play through. It’s not like my issues have ever gone away simply because I’ve chosen to ignore them.
(I can only do that for so long, no thanks to pandoramancy.)
But there is something to be said for Meg Myers’ raw howl in the final chorus, as if she has become aware of the same unavoidable truth as I have.
But I embrace it.
He is in my heart…
and my head…
even though that truth rattles me to the core today.
❤
…
This past Saturday, I went to a local craftsperson/artisan event that was being held downtown from where I live.
Part of the reason for the event was to inspire folks to begin their holiday shopping locally, and I was happy to see that a lot of the shops along the main street were open and busy as a result of this event.
I also discovered a few (new to me) local stores that I realized that I hadn’t even known existed so close to my home.
So, as I was browsing in an antique store that I’d never thought to explore, I came across so many battered (yet overpriced) mundane items that filled me with childhood nostalgia.
One such item was a bulky black rotary telephone that reminded me of the one that sat on the side table in my Nana’s front hall in the early 70’s.
It looked just like the one that I had been warned by my Nana was a Very Important Thing that I must never play with.
It also made a very deep, jangling ring, and I remember being a bit terrified by the look of it and the sound of it when it rang.
I vaguely recall her explanations about how this telephone was a Very Important Thing for Hearing the Voices of Those Who Are Very Far Away, so I chuckle to think of it now, but I remember being entirely convinced in my young child-mind that only God would ever call my Nana on that phone.
And besides, how I understood it, it seemed to me that God was definitely a Someone Not to be trifled with, as well as Someone with a Voice, from Very Far Away.
~~~~
As I was mulling over that particular memory, and clumsily trying avoid disaster as I navigated the narrow spaces between the jumbled collections of antiques and the steady stream of my fellow-browsers, I found myself inevitably being jostled toward china cabinets that lined the farthest wall. I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in looking at shelves of dusty, gilt-edged dishes and bric-a-brac, until something caught my eye:
At first glance, I’d assumed that this brass match-holder (to be mounted near a fireplace) was supposed to depict the face of the Devil or an imp – and I would still say so – but upon inspection of the tag, I saw something else written there.
While I tried several times to capture a good angle that would allow a view of both the face and the tag, I couldn’t get it all within the frame.
The tag reads:
LCH
Brass “Norse Wind God”
Match Holder
$65.00
Doing more research on this piece through the Internet/Google – I went to Amazon sold lists, various antique websites, Pinterest, and eBay – this piece is listed as depicting any of several Beings: the Devil, Pan, Dionysus/Bacchus, and the Green Man.
One seller on eBay refers to it as a ‘Fire-God/Imp Match-holder.’
Another seller on an antique website refers to this face as ‘Zeus’
I was very taken aback to see ‘Norse Wind God’ however…because I know Who I thought of when I read that on the tag.
Hm.
Syncretism, anyone?
(PS: Loki seemed left out of all that reaching for description of ‘the possible Deity’ depicted on this antique match-safe — and I found that surprising, too.)