Category: Uncategorized

Standing at a cross-roads on my journey.

On By PaxIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Dear Friends,

I am standing at a cross-roads once more.

As I posted on Facebook, “There are times where doing what is the right thing is the single most painful and difficult of options.“

Sometimes, life beats you down.  6 or 7 years ago  I found myself in a place where my spiritual practices became the only source of stability in my life.  I was not willing to face the changes that I needed to make, I was not ready for them, or perhaps just not yet at the right cross-roads in my journey?  I fled into dozens of different retreats…online gaming, burying myself in tv shows…running away behaviors…letting go of projects and relationships and activities that nourished my spirit, my faith.  I let go of my practices and have struggled to pick them up once more.

Sometimes love, no matter how much love there is between two people, is not enough.

The moon, the stars and planets, the dance of the seasons, the inspiration of the Holy Powers…all of these come down to timing.  Timing is important in our everyday as well as our religious and spiritual work.  Sometimes, the time just is not right.

Then too, sometimes we are not ready to do what we need too, we set up all kinds of conditions or hedges against what we SHOULD be doing…either out of fear or exhaustion, out of kilter with our highest self and True Will…

it takes two people to make a relationship work and two people for a relationship to break down.  At the same time I look and tell myself I did everything I could; I find myself wanting.  My actions, my words, my choices…my excuses, my fears and insecurities. 

All the things I saw that were bad are now being drowned by recollections of the good, the joy, the love, the simple moments of kindness and care.

So now I stand in the cross-roads once more.  Taking some time in what folklore tells us is a place of power.  Trying to just be comfortable with the storm of memories and emotions playing around and through me. 

Blessed be your journey,

Pax

Beltaine!

On By PaxIn Beltaine, Pagan Ponderings, Reinventing the Wheel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Beltane celebrates fertility.  In ancient times this festivals celebrations were interwoven with many traditions relating to encouraging fertility in the fields and flocks and herds.  Strong themes of sensuality and sexuality are a part of the warp and weft of this Sabbat.    Within Witchcraft the union of the Goddess and God is intertwined with these themes.

Yet, what does Beltaine mean in a green and evergrowing land like Florida?  Bringing Summer in… what does that mean here?

Here in Central Florida it’s not like the flowers or fruits of the green and growing world are1 ever absent… Nature does go through it’s cycles and different fruits and flowers (and vegetables) have their own times of year and yet something is always blooming down here!  In Central Florida we are sub-tropical and two is the number of Seasons, not four.  A rainy season in the Summer/Autumn and a dry season in Winter/Spring. 

Summer brings challenges.  Withering heat and opressive humidity.  Hurricane season starts in another month or so.  Mosquitoes, Jellyfish, new generations of cockroaches, and Hammerhead Sharks are all creatures of summer down here.

And Yet, Summer brings blessings.  Cooling and quenching rainstorms each afternoon, bringing much needed water to a land left very thirsty from unthought out development and growth.  Hot evenings swimming in the pool.  Warm evening walks or time spent sitting on the porch swing sipping iced tea.  Time spent in the garden in the cool of late afternoon or early evening.

Beltaine is at the cusp of the changes from the Dry to the Rainy and we can celebrate the Rainy seasons return as the blessing of continued fertility on our peninsula.  Like anywhere else you give thanks for the blessings, accept the challenges, and, unlike elsewhere, you look forward to the cooling breath of winter.

Peace, and a Blessed Beltaine

Pax