The One Lovely Blog Award!

I was blown away to be honored on Monday with this! Thanks so much to The Wiccan Life

The "One Lovely Blog" Award!!

Now for the hard part. Trying to tell you all seven things about myself that you don't already know ...

1) At the beginning of this blog, I had restarted sewing after years of going without. I wanted a place to share ideas and projects.
2)  I have a Master's Degree in Counseling and teach those skills to others.
3) My posts changed dramatically when I made some changes in my life, a little over 3 years ago, which included giving up a long-time affair with Bacardi 151 and Camel wides.
5) I have a Harley Davidson and love her. We hang out frequently.
6) I was, this summer, standing within 5 feet of Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary, but was so blown away that I didn't introduce myself.
7) I was a solitary witch most of my life, but joined a circle a few years ago and have very recently taken a teacher for formal training.

Here are my seven blog choices to pass this award on to:

Broom with a View

Ellen Dugan's Blog of Witchery

Hedgewitch at Home

Letting Go is Flying

 New Age Mama

The Creative Fire

The Sisters Elemental

Thank you to everyone who writes the blogs that I hate to miss. :) I learn so much from each of you and are very grateful!

MY Responsibility

I normally do not rant on this blog, but I've become more and more concerned and discontent. I feel compelled to speak my own truth.

After years of watching our government make decisions based upon the pursuit of money and power rather than the health of its citizens, I have taken this tact: 

BUY LOCAL 
BUY ORGANIC 
GROW/MAKE YOUR OWN 

If we fail to stop supporting the corporate structure, it will continue to grow and flourish and control everything. I will not support it. This is my pledge: 

-I will conserve energy. 
-I will minimize my impact upon my earth by not wastefully purchasing or using any resource. 
-I will not support WAR for anything other than the protection of American citizens on American soil. I do not believe we have the right to tell other countries how to govern themselves or how to treat their citizens. When their citizens have had enough, their strength of numbers will not allow any corrupt or oppressive regime to remain. Our own government may wish to take heed of the same advice. 25% of American children are living in poverty. Why are we sending troops and money overseas? 
-The only way I will buy any logo or name-brand item is if it is USED or SECOND-HAND, in order to reduce manufacturing and damage to the earth. 
-I will continue to do those things that I do: minimize the use of plastic, recycle, reuse, compost, up-cycle, re-purpose, grow as much of my own food and herbs as possible, give only hand-made items as gifts and request the same. 
-I will use alternative and complementary medicines made by myself (or others competent to do so) rather than support unnecessary use of pharmaceuticals, an industry based on (in my opinion) treating symptoms to the exclusion of curing illness in the pursuit of financial gain.
-I will barter with others, when possible, to mutual satisfaction.
-I will buy only from people I can actually meet and speak to. If there is a corporate entity involved, I'm not interested. 
-I will treat others with respect and dignity. I will not belittle them, no matter their flaws. I will recognize my connection to every other thing on this planet and behave accordingly.

Its MY opinion. You needn't agree. In fact, post your own opinion on your own blog. If you are abusive on mine, I'll delete.

Randomness

You know how you have those 'ah-ha' moments in the damnedest places at the craziest times? I was sitting at my kitchen table, this morning, and realized 2 things:

1. I've always got a bazillion things going at once so that nothing gets my full attention at any one time
2. I spend more time cooking for my dogs than myself

Yes. Its true. Not sure what that means. The good news is, it won't last more than a few seconds in my head before I move onto something else, so no need to ponder. (Just joking -- those of you who have ever read anything know that I'm a ponderer extraordinaire! I ponder and ponder and ruminate and pick-apart and dissect and analyze -- well, you get the point.)

My bazillion things this morning included:
-making food for my dogs (the 2 large dogs eat a combination of chicken livers and gizzards, brown rice, and green beans; the small dog eats a combination of chicken dark meat, oatmeal, and green peas) -- so I had 2 huge pots on my stove going at once: 1 cooking chicken dark meat on the bone that I'll pick in a while and put back in the pot after adding the oats and beans to cook in it; 1 cooking ground rice and minced green beans which will need the chopped gizzards and livers added after cooking....I blew up my immersion blender, yesterday, so all chopping is to be done by hand...bleck!
-writing my morning pages (this is a form of 'stream of thought' writing that I got after doing Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" program, based on her book of the same name. Get it! Its great!)
-checking Facebook and responding to the notifications on my personal page, as well as two group pages that I run and one more that I participate in
-updating my cell phone applications (no, this doesn't take much effort other than a few clicks, but it was happening)
-texting three friends about plans for the week/weekend
-drinking coffee
-checking my Ebay items listed for sale
-purchasing organic beeswax from my favorite seller of it on Ebay
-reviewing the shipping info on a dress I ordered on Ebay from India
-looking at my stats on my new Etsy store and pondering what I could do to increase traffic
-inviting people to Etsy to try to get free listings for both of us if I thought they might be interested
-posting Etsy updates to Facebook for possibly increased traffic
-brainstorming new products for Etsy listings after looking at the list I generated, yesterday, of the potential ideas -- reassessing those ideas
-planning my class for this evening at work in order to best maintain student engagement, covering the material necessary, and using the time efficiently
-making a list of things to do for the day (read my news on Twitter, check Pinterest, update my blogs, etc.)
-started to check Twitter, but thought better of it for the moment (added it to my list of things to do)
.....
I could go on, but you get the point (and, have likely lost interest by now)...
.....
And, I make dog food for my lovies at least twice a week. Its nice when I can make both kinds at once, so that its only two days a week. Sometimes, it ends up being more like four days because of the way it runs out. Due to current financial issues, I always make extra and freeze it -- just in case there's a week where I don't have the money to buy the supplies. In the past, it wouldn't have occurred to me to put away for a rainy day...funny how age impacts that little factor.

At any rate, the greater thought was this:

Am I really living the mindfulness approach that I believe is the best for me?
Do I really want to let go of my ability to multi-task and utilize my multi-linear thinking? (I have to admit, I'm a little proud of these.)
How will I know unless...

GASP

I actually try it.

Dreadful! Gasp! Gasp! Do I really want to commit to that?

But, the short answer is, of course, YES. How will I know if the mindful approach will improve my life unless I give it the full attempt. I think that I used to actually live that way. I'm not sure how the clutter invaded my head, again, but it most certainly has. And, the streams of thoughts are going a million miles a second, again.

I guess I need a tune-up. So, bear with me if I don't respond right away. I'll be actually trying to do one thing at a time for a while. When I'm fully engaged in something, it must improve the results. Right?

well, I'll let you know....

 

Etsy!

Ok, I've opened an Etsy shop. I finally jumped. Wish me luck.

Yes, yes, there are only 10 items in it, right now, but I'll be working on adding some more.

The Witch's Way