Ostara
Today was the first day of spring. Ostara, the ORIGINAL Easter, is here. I usually haven’t made a big deal out of this, but I’ve always wanted to. Instead, I’ve gotten excited in my pagan way during the Christian Easter by coloring lots of Easter eggs and celebrating my inner child.
But this year, I was able to celebrate the first day of spring the way I’ve wanted to, with Ray (because he wanted to celebrate it too). He got me a huge bouquet of flowers and we went out to dinner. I think from now on, it’s going to be our Valentine’s Day. After all, flowers are much cheaper AFTER Valentine’s Day, and they mean more when they’re not obligatory for some made up Hallmark holiday.
Of course, the bouquet was so big I had to go buy a large vase just so I could stick the flowers in water. Apparently all the vases in the house are being used by leather roses. Go figure.
Filed under Romance, Wicca | Comment (0)Groundhog Day
No, my life is not a Bill Murray movie. And actually, I had forgotten that today was Groundhog Day until Ray reminded me tonight.
I guess the prediction from the famous PA groundhog is that we’ll have six more weeks of winter, but I don’t really feel like we’ve had very much of a winter yet. I’m half ready to start planting peas in my spring garden, only I have the bad feeling that some freak snowstorm in April will come and wipe out my fragile seedlings and I’ll have to start all over again. No, better to wait until AFTER said freak snowstorm.
In other news, not only did I miss Chinese New Year (bad Chinese girl!), but I forgot all about Imbolc/Candlemas/St. Brigid’s Day (bad witch!), which is February 1st, and which is directly related to Groundhog Day. All these holidays are celebrations of midwinter, looking ahead to a spring that is already peeking its head out of its proverbial hole. For those of us who despise the cold darkness of winter, this is a very exciting time. Mother Earth is just beginning to wake up. I just hope she doesn’t press the snooze button with a freak snowstorm sometime in April.
Filed under Blogging, Cranky, Wicca | Comment (0)Jehovah’s Witnesses
So this morning at around 11:30 or so, the doorbell rang. I certainly wasn’t presentable to be receiving any guests, but anyone who had the gall to ring my doorbell on a Saturday deserved to see me in my PJ’s with stubbly legs and pits and, worst of all, bed hair. I opened the door to find…
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES! (cue scary music)
Yes, the JW’s were making the rounds again. They’ve been to our house before on several occasions, and I’ve always been very polite. The first time they came around, it was one woman. I told her that nobody in our house was Christian, and she had this really blank look on her face, like she didn’t really know what to say to that. She blurted out a, “Okay, thank you, good day,” and backed down the driveway. That made me chuckle.
The second time they came by, there were two of them, a man and a woman, who before they had started pulling out their copy of the Watchtower, started telling me that they were starting up a Bible study class. I told them that we had no use for a Bible class, since nobody here was Christian. I don’t think the woman heard me, because she said, “That’s okay. We just want to talk to you about some of the things in the Bible.” I smiled and said, “Thank you, but I don’t believe in the Bible, so I don’t think that would help me.” She gave me this blank, puzzled look as if I had just given her a lecture on calculus. I smiled again and said, “Thank you very much,” and closed the door.
They must not have spread the word around to the other JW’s about us, because this morning they were back again. One would have thought my unkempt appearance would have stopped them short, but I suppose if you’re on a mission from God, or Jehovah or whomever (hey, why don’t they call themselves JHVH’s Witnesses? Or Yaweh’s Witnesses?) little things like my smelly just-out-of-bed smell wouldn’t bother them.
I opened the door, saw the two of them (a man and a woman, but both different people from last time), saw the woman holding a stack of Watchtower pamphlets, and rolled my eyes. “Hi, we’re from–” “I’m sorry, but we’re not Christians here. Thanks.” I had no time to quibble, not when there was some serious hygenic issues going on with me. I had the door halfway closed, when the man said, “Wait, you’re not CHRISTIAN?” His eyes were opened really wide, and were kind of bugging out of his head.
Yes, moron. There are some people still left in this country who are not Christian. I know it doesn’t seem like it the way our President talks, but we are still out here. “No. Thank you.”
Once again, I start to close the door, and he blurts out again, “You mean, you don’t believe in Jesus Christ?”
I paused, trying to think of the best way to answer this. Do I believe that there was a guy named Jesus back in the day? Probably. Do I “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, eternally begotten of the father…for my sake was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried…ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father?” Not particularly. Do I accept him as my personal saviour? Definitely not. But I didn’t really want to get into it with this guy. The poor man’s eyes were going to pop out for sure.
So I said, “Nope, sure don’t. Thanks!” I closed the door quickly this time, but not before I heard him say, “Well, I’ll be sure to come back.”
Oh, great. That’s the last thing I need, a Jehovah’s Witness who wants to convert me to Christianity AND bring me into his cult. I need a better way to get rid of them. Should I invite them in and offer to perform a hex on their enemies?
Filed under Religion, Wicca | Comments (3)Happy Equinox
So now that the nights are officially longer and Persephone has gone down to spend the winter with Hades and eat pomegranates, we all can celebrate the second harvest and hunker down for a long winter’s nap.
Of course, it’s still 80 degrees outside and I’m not even wearing jackets yet, except for in the office, where they’ve got the air conditioner going at arctic temperatures. Global warming, I suppose…maybe there is something to that whole link between the rise in global temperature and the fall in the number of pirates since the 1800’s. I think we should start breeding pirates.
But seriously, I’m starting to look at this coming winter with a small chill in my heart. Two of the four Philadelphia Singers concerts have been cancelled, including the one that I got the solo for (talk about a BIG bummer…I went drinking that night). I didn’t get into OCP and I haven’t gotten any calls from New York to do stuff, so I’ve effectively screwed myself by being loyal to TPS. I guess now is the time to beat the bushes and come up with something. Anything. It’s hard not to just wallow in self-pity, though…really, really hard.
I’ll be okay, though…SuperMaren has been through worse than this. I’m just thankful that I have my home and my family, my health and my cats. And that’s really all I need.
Filed under Singing, Wicca | Comment (0)