I've been strolling through my day, surfing the web, creating art and generally enjoying this lazy moment in my life. It's so nice not to have a demand on me by work or anyone. I'm on holiday break at my job at the university and I am relaxing into it.
I am feeling the creative muse percolating in my brain, bursting out with little dots of brilliance. My goal for this week is to recreate my self esteem by publishing my bits of artwork and creativity.
Here's an ATC I created this morning. I gave no thought on what it was to become, I just let it create itself. The technique I used is called Iris Folding. I found the free pattern at this website. " http://www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com/irisfoldingcat.html" They have a lot of free patterns and very good instructions on how to make an Iris Fold card. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Here's one of the pictures I've uploaded to my "ATCs for All" account. I had so much fun making this one. I used a canceled stamp and "air mail" stamp from one of my received swap envelopes. The background is orgami paper, and ribbon. There is a vintage collage "beauty Post" image and a dragonfly button.
When I create I rarely have a picture in my mind of what I am going to make. It comes to me, almost in a meditative state. Sometimes I have a theme to work with, especially if it is for a swap.
This holiday turned out really nice. I had Christmas dinner with one of my coven sisters and her family. I had forgotten what it's like to gather with a family. Especially a family who are happy and well-adjusted. My family was very chaotic and it was extremely stressful to gather with as there was much arguing and fighting. My father was very angry ALL the time, so everyone would walk around feeling as if we were on eggshells. We didn't want to set off my father.
As the years went on and we grew up, my sisters and myself ended up with men who were very much like my father. I was able to break away and end the cycle for myself. My sisters were unable to do so. My middle sister still is married to a very abusive man, so one of her daughters has repeated the cycle with an abusive man.
One way I broke the cycle was by moving away. I have lived several hundred miles from my family and have been happily divorced from my 1st husband for 30 years and now am fully happy with myself and what I am doing in my life. I have no need for an abusive mate, just so that I won't be alone. :-)
Anyway, that's why this dinner was so nice. Seeing everyone playing and laughing together was wonderful.
And I think perhaps I was able to send some of this good energy to my family. My mother said that their gathering was really nice and there was no fighting or anger this time. :-) I'm SO glad.
I found the blessing I am going to use for our Yule ritual tonight. It is an old Celtic Blessing that I found on the Internet. I would give the author credit, however, there
was no author listed.
"May the blessing of light be on you -
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart til it glows like a warm peat fire." ---unknown
I think it has a nice sound and it is keeping with the ideas of Yule/Winter Solstice. Especially since one of the reasons for celebrating this Sabbat is to honor the old dying God and welcome the newborn God. Yule is partially about celebrating the last bit of sunlight before the harsh reality of winter. My part in this ritual is to be the Mother, who holds the new God in her womb, the Mother of the earth. Any other time this would be really hard for me as I never actually had children, however, now I see my art and spirituality my "children". I "give birth" to creativity all the time. When I create the ATCs I swap and then pass on to someone else and I "give birth" to my Spirituality every time I participate or write a ritual. So this piece of the ritual is no longer an issue for me.
I am finding that each and every time I "create", I re-energise and re-dedicate myself to my "Spirit" and "my God/Goddess". So in a very real sense my spirituality is with me whether I am working at my mundane job, creating a piece of art, or creating a ritual to myself or my Goddess.
This Sunday my group will celebrate Yule and the Winter Solstice. I need to write a blessing to share in the ritual and am having a little problem deciding what to do. I have some ideas and am going to go Googling for more ideas. I'll post what I came up with later.I'm going to the Post Office to pick up some packages and mail a few. Our PO here has been insanely busy and I have great difficulty standing in lines because of my physical ailments. It is extremely painful to stand in line. I am hoping that if I go just before closing there will be less people in line. Wish me luck! :-)
Friends have been asking me to blog and show off some of my creativity. This blog will have pictures of my artwork, thoughts about my spirituality and anything else that might come to mind.
I've wanted to blog for a long time. I just haven't gotten it quite together. LOL Maybe this will inspire me.
