(cue nifty broom riding fly-by montage)

So in the last week +, myself, my Partner, and our room mate have moved South of Orlando, about 25 minutes outside the metro area. I am still settling in and still looking forward to my graduation, and still needing to keep up with my writting… a few different things are lingering in my mind of late.

I am at a place in my life where I will now have some time to resume those things that feed my soul. Ritual and Magick, Reading and Writing, Cooking and Gaming.

The more I think about my life before I met my beloved, and before I came to Orlando, the more I realize that I often let myself set important things aside. I let my practice of the Faith of Witchcraft and of Magick fade in the face of a daily grind. I would bog myself down in the daily details and lose sight of the fun in those hobbies or activities I took part in. I also would turn to some pretty dumb and self-destructive behaviors to escape needless fear.

…

At school, in the Restaurant and Hospitality Management program, they emphasized the fact that the Hospitality Industry can be especially tough to work in. You are dealing with unusual schedules a sometimes insane workload and the ever challenging nature of dealing with the public. Several of the classes were keyed to blend in with our focus on Restaurant and Hospitality Management. The Math, English, and Science classes as well as the Hospitality Law, Human Resources Management, and Accounting classes all returned time and again to Hospitality based models.

The Psychology class talked extensively about stress management and the positive and negative ways in which people choose to deal with stress.

Again and again I have seen how I have allowed the stressors of my daily life to overshadow my spiritual practice and those activities that most feed my soul. At the times I most need to touch Spirit and to renew myself, I have been most willing to surrender to the tides of work and the moment.

In this new year and new home, I have the opportunity to begin again. To renew my spiritual and magickal studies, to renew my relationships with the Gods. It is not as if the Lord and Lady of Witchcraft went anywhere… heck, they ARE everywhere! Present in every blessed atom and cell of creation! It only really takes the willingness to open oneself up to Them and to the Wonder and Magick present in all of the world around us for us to touch and be transformed and blessed by Them.

I also have the chance to renew my relationships with the Lord and Lady, as well as build upon my new relationship with Dionysus and Hecate. I will take that chance.

The Gods are many and they are real! They are present in every atom and cell of creation and they are present within each of us. With every breath we have the chance to breathe inspiration.

I do not, in the end, regret the path so far. Every step along the way has been of my choosing, and I have always tried to learn from every moment, each experience.

Now I make more conscious choices, I’d like to think I have done some growing up in the last couple of years.

Later today I will lift a glass of wine to conscious choices, and healthy ones, and to the Lord and Lady of the Witches, and to Hecate and Dionysus, and to the spirits of this new home, and to the coming year.

Blessed be,

Pax / Geoffrey Stewart