Saturday Bonus Post!

I don't usually post on Saturdays, but something happened yesterday I really want to talk about. See, Sascha and I voted yesterday. We took advantage of the early voting that our state has, since my work schedule for next week wasn't out yet, and I didn't know if I'd have voting day off or not. We also have never voted in the voting booths before; Oregon, our home state, votes exclusively by mail. So this was something new!

What we weren't expecting was the line. Oh man, the line. Instead of sitting at our table at home, talking about the issues and marking our ballots, we stood in line. For THREE AND A HALF HOURS. We had decided to vote first, and THEN go buy some new shoes for me, so I was standing in not-the-best shoes. My back was aching, my feet were aching...and about halfway through, when we finally got up to the building, I spotted a crow feather on the ground.

I haven't found a crow feather since I left Oregon the last time. The apartment I lived in, in Oregon, had a local murder of crows. I would find feathers EVERYWHERE constantly. I made a promise to Crow to always pick up feathers, so I now have a BOX full. (The image I've posted is about half of the feathers I wound up collecting!)


Seeing this random, lonely feather when I was miserable and aching...it reassured me that I was doing the right thing. It encouraged me to be patient; the gods were watching.

PBP - Volatility and why I've been gone

I wavered between discussing volatility or vulnerability this week; had I jumped back into the PBP a week earlier I probably would have done both. But I think, given my extended absence and the reasons why, volatility is the better topic.

And oh my, have things been volatile.

In the four - five? months since I've posted regularly, Sascha has left the military, we've moved to a different state, I've gotten a job, we've gotten a new car, there's been a hurricane and a derecho, and Sascha has yet to find a new job.

When you're in the military, there's a certain amount of steadiness (yes, steadiness, amongst all the uncertainty!) that you come to expect. You know you'll get paid twice a month, you know how much that will be.

With Sascha on unemployment, and the old car shitting itself, our life pretty much lost all of its reliability.

It was about this time I realized I still had Shiva sitting in a primary place on my altar, for his destruction-for-a-purpose energies. Love you, man, but ENOUGH! I removed him, not from the altar, but from the center of it. I'm searching for stability now, and I don't think he's the way to find it.

Since doing so, I've found a job and we traded in the old car for a brand new one which should hopefully not break every time we turn around. (And they were able to wrap the old car loan into the new one; so financially it made sense.)

Volatility is just - not a pleasant experience for me. I often wear a hematite bracelet, and carry hematite worry stones, to keep myself grounded. I don't mind change, but I like to have a solid foundation to deal with that change from. My marriage is still rock-steady, and a wonderful foundation, but having lost the financial stability, things are more stressful.

We do have a few things on the horizon; a job offer for Sascha, a possible business opportunity for me, but neither of those start until January or February. So we're in a bit of a holding pattern. "Just get through the next few months, and then we'll be fine."

I've been so distracted with starting my new job - my seasonal, part-time, temporary retail job - that I don't even know what gods/goddesses/energies I should be directing my efforts toward. I should probably do some research and put a spell up on the altar.

Does anyone have any recommendations for financial spells? Or perhaps tranquility in the face of chaos spells?

Happy Samhain!

I am sincerely sorry I've left this blog abandoned for so long. Things are a-changing! My New Year's resolution is to blog six days a week here, and get back to my old schedule. Until then, however, I'm committing to one day a week. Aiming for two days a week, but I WILL be posting one day a week. I'll be making some changes to the blog and my online presence as well. Just superficial changes, I'll try not to change the content too much, unless you guys have ideas you'd like to see me address!

One of my ideas for the New Year is to have you guys send me requests for books/music to review.

I'll be picking up the Pagan Blog Project from where they are now, so look out for V this Friday.

I'm very excited to get back to this blog now that things have settled down from the move and relocating to a different state/way of living. Have a wonderful Samhain, and I look forward to talking to you all more often!