Learning the world out there

I need to keep a notebook on me at all times so I can jot down notes of things I think about in a 24 hour period because when I sit down to the keyboard, my mind goes blank.  I had all kinds of thoughts last night but there must be an erase button in my brain that kicks on when I go to sleep because I rarely remember things I thought about the day before.

This morning, however, I saw the end of a really delightful movie that I must see from the beginning next time.  The Mistress of Spices was on when Professor woke me up at 7:30 a.m. to announce the rat-bastard chipmunk was outside the window.  So I watched it instead of going back to sleep.  I know little of Indian spirituality so it was really intriguing to see the worship practices of, I'm assuming, Hinduism.  Because the world is a wider place for me these days I really enjoyed seeing other ways to honor the Gods/Goddesses.

I'm still very much at home with Druidism and don't want to follow another path, but it's still very enlightening to observe.

And speaking of Druidism, I really like the podcasts that I've been listening to and hope I can find more like them.  Otherwise it will be hard to wait a month in between them.  OBOD has some courses that really seem good but I don't have the money so I'm limited to utilizing what is free on their site.  I fell in love with Professor Ronald Hutton and his easy way of storytelling. He talked about Pan and the history of the Horned God.  I really connected with it especially as I am just now bonding with Cernnunos.  I am not duotheistic, however, and still feel a great deal of affection for Lugh, Brighid and Rhiannon, among others in the Celtic pantheon I haven't met yet.

I bought some yarn today to make myself a tunic for those cold days ahead and because it seems very Celtic to me.  I wasn't going to get the yarn but it was on sale.  I just hope I have enough because I bought all they had.  I'm pretty short so I figure it's not going to be as long as the one on the model so I should pick up some yardage there.  I only buy yarn on sale and usually figure out later what to make but I thought this would be a nice Samhain present to myself so I can celebrate outdoors in it.  I have to start now though as I am not a fast knitter.

I'm also knitting The Tree of Life afghan.  It's got a Rivendell quality to it and fits in very nicely with my vision of what Celtic Paganism looks like.  I'm making it for my snuggling time when I sit down to knit or spin or read during the winter months.  It's hard to think of working on something warm right now but I think one of the things about being in touch with the cycle is anticipating the needs for the next part of it.  Preparedness was necessary for our ancestors in any culture.  They couldn't just run to the store on a whim.  They had to look ahead and see what their needs would be.

I think I would be better at what I do if I would learn to anticipate our needs better instead of running out of things and running to the store and getting way more than I really wanted to get.

I hope to start feeling better and more energetic in the future.  It's time to start taking better care of myself and anticipating what my body needs, too.  Like healthier food and exercise and a more positive outlook.  Instead of just getting through the day I'd like to enjoy the day and live it as fully as I can.  I've gotten into a rut where I resort to a lot of self-pity and unconcern for the quality of my life.  I anticipate that things will soon look up around here.

I'm trying to develop a daily ritual for honoring the Gods/Goddesses because I just feel like it's something that I need to do.  I'm looking at many different sites that offer Pagan prayers and such but I've discovered the Druid's Prayer and it immediately resonated with me.  It has to become a part of my daily ritual life.

The Druid's Prayer:
Grant Oh God and Goddess protection,
And in protection, strength,
And in strength, understanding,
And in understanding, knowledge,
And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice,
And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,
And in the love of it, the love of all existences,
And in the love of all existences, the love of God, Goddess and all goodness.


Isn't it lovely? 


Well, I'm off to listen to another podcast and do some spinning.