Happy Countdown to Samhain

Marginally better again.  Except I tried to take Professor on a walk and my hips started bitching at me the last half of the block...which is a very, very steep hill.  So tomorrow we'll go down that one instead of up.  I need to get my blood circulating.  I'm becoming convinced that health and spirituality are incontrovertibly linked but don't ask for explanations today.  My mind is still in a fog.

I got some books from the library today on ravens, crows, etc so I can focus on Night Wings this month along with the artists on John Howe's site.  I also found a book on Welsh fairy tales which intrigued me so it came home with me, too.  I've been finding myself drawn to the Welsh aspects of Druidry, but it's probably just for a season.  It seems to be how I work...in seasons.

I'm pretty sure I have Welsh ancestry but I haven't explored it much.  I do know I have Scottish on both sides of my family: Stewart and Baldwin, and I'm pretty sure the Jones side comes from Wales but I haven't got the money to do a genealogy search right now. Family members have done genealogies and I've got a Mormon cousin who I'm sure has but I haven't seen her in over 40 years so I doubt we'll ever be in touch.

It's not important in the scheme of things but I do feel like I'm drawn to the religions of my ancestors.  I'm thinking of learning Welsh although I would love to learn Scots Gaelic as well.  Finding sources for those languages is hard though.  Open University has beginning Welsh and the library has beginning Scots Gaelic so I can at least learn the basics.  Maybe enough for pronunciation. 

Now that it's October, I'm getting excited about decorating for Samhain.  To me it's like the excitement I used to feel decorating for Christmas, only better.  I'm hoping the excitement will be the impetus I need to get my motivation and ambition in the same place.  I'm so excited to celebrate this year as this will be the first year we're able to be open about it.  I'm having fun counting the days.

I plan on doing some drawing tonight as well as knitting.  I've always found knitting to be a spiritual exercise for me, even as a Christian, but I realize now that it's never been a Christian exercise.  Instead I feel a connection with the ancestors and even the gods (forgive me for the lower case but I still can't get past the upper case meaning the Christian god and I really prefer lower case because that separates them out for me).  I wonder if that's why Lugh has called to me and why Brighid was the first to get my attention.

So I'm off to spin, draw and knit (and crochet) and work on my Books as well.