Monday was the first of my three days a week off from work, roughly a four ten-hour shifts situation, and while there’s plenty to do my body and spirit especially demanded rest.  I sipped coffee, browsed assorted social media, finally settled for what ended up being a four hour nap… there’s a Gilligan’s Island theme song filk tickling my cerebellum…and am journalling and blogging and texting with good friends and engaging in some delightful and deep-ish conversations in my social media with other good friends tonight and getting my night owl on!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing my best to listen, truly listen to my body and it’s needs.  I have been getting up early, trying to get good and good hous of sleep,  making sure I took my various blood pressure medications and vitamin supplements and making lunch to take with me each day rather than stopping at the corner store.  I know these sound like small things but when you’ve spent far too many years neglecting yourself in ways great and small they can feel pretty massive!

*rereads that last sentence*

Dude?!

So, ok, as we’ve previously discussed I have recently been unpacking two things;boxes of my books and magickal supplies and tools, and my emotional/mental/spiritual baggage!  A near death experience can apparently share commonalities with a shamanic death, and as I’ve been deep diving back into my Craft of writing and my Witchcraft thoughts and ideas and research and magickal techniques related to boundaries and crossroads have been a big theme along with the realization that a bunch of my journaling and introspection and discernment is mirroring what is called by Jungian psychologists, and some Traditions of The Craft for that matter, Shadow work.  In the coming year I will be looking to read some Jung or his intellectual disciples.

All of which has been a bit of an adventure as early December always gets me moody.  A blend of Seasonal Depression, my ADHD self realizing the Holiday is upon me and I should find something my my loved ones and family, and an annual frustration and low self worth fest related to being poor. Most years I start to jump start myself out of it with a listen to Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton… though the first version I heard of it was from Rupaul’s holiday album Ho Ho Ho.  This year I discovered a metal band or project called August Burns Red and some delightful Holiday Metal options to add to the works of Trans Siberia Orchestra among others as my musical holiday serotonin boosters.

On the home front, we were making space in the freezer and had set a chicken to thawing in the fridge and had reached the point of cook it or lose it.  The fabulous Jonathan roasted the chicken while I was at work (he works from home even outside of a plague year) and I had some for dinner when I got home.   I placed the meat in the the Gladwear and let the rest of the bird and a small amount of the pan drippings simmer on low overnight.   The next morning I woke up on my own about an hour before my alarm.  After the urgent application of a cup of coffee, I fished all the bones out of the chicken broth that had worked its overnight alchemy on the stove on the lowest heat setting, and using a slotted spoon and a paper towel skimmed some of the excess fat and froth (which if I am remembering correctly relates to calcium or minerals in the bones) off; all this before raising the heat and added some herbs.  Our broth then sat in the fridge for a couple days as the mad rush of days and work schedules occupied myself and my bear.  Jonathan got some celery and carrots at some point in there.  Then my dear husbear boilled up some brown rice (brown rice is better cooked more along the lines of pasta than white rice apparently) and blended it with water and a bit of the home-made broth, added some sliced carrots and celery, some of the chicken from the roast as well as some boneless chicken breast from the freezer that he cooked and cut up, and more herbs and let it simmer for hours.

So now we have soup, and snacking chicken, our little dog Dobby has some snacking chicken, and we have a good amount of broth that needs to be portioned out and some placed in the freezer for later use in soups or gravy or sauce.  Our particular process in this reminded me of nothing so much as the Stone Soup out of European folk tales.

So these have all been a part of my recent journey as of late.

Peace, and blessed be your journey,

Pax / Geoffrey