Celebrate

Of all the holidays, I struggle with Yule the most. I didn’t manage a seasonal meal or any kind of formal celebration, but I still had a nice time nonetheless.

My sweetheart and I went out to the markets. There’s a permanent place there that sells fresh orange juice. This time around they also had mulled wine, apple cidar and a hot lemon, honey and ginger mix. I don’t know whether it was a winter thing or just for the solstice, but I treated myself to some of the honey, lemon and ginger. It must have been one of the tastiest things I’ve ever drunk. I also came away with a lovely journal cover in purple leather embossed with Celtic designs. The grey bearded man that served me was very sweet and gave me some tips on looking after it.

I had a chance to do some reflecting yesterday, which was lovely. I took a walk around my front and back yard, checking on all the plants and making sure that everything was going well. Amusingly, the blossom bush already has buds even though the coldest part of winter was still to come. There was a heavy fog, so I didn’t get up to watch the sun rise.

My study has been decked out for a week now. The appropriate sabbat banner is up, along with some tinsel hanging off my bookshelf. My ivy wreath didn’t want to cooperate this year, so I used some more tinsel to bind it. There was pine essential oil in my burner and starstone, garnet, sunstone and citrine on my altar.

Discardia was due to finish today, but I haven’t yet celebrated it. There has been too much going on for me to give it any attention. I’m very thankful that Discardia is such a flexible holiday. I plan to start next week, when things are a little quieter.

As usual, I had an extended one. Celebrated with Mom and Dad on Saturday, went bowling with R on Sunday, and enjoyed the day off and a nice b-day dinner with R on the actual day.

Some highlights:
- I’ve mentioned the suckers R bought, but will put them here, too. That was just too cute.
- Mom and Dad’s gift of Wii Fit is looking to be a better exercise motivator than anything else I’ve tried so far; everything’s broken into easily scheduled chunks, and you get credit for non-Wii activities, as well. (Plus, unlike exercise videos, you get real feedback on whether or not you’re doing well.)
- Firefly box set! I bought one for Dad a few years ago, but now I have my own. Squee!
- R surprised me with a Dos Equis amber. I love Dos Equis, but don’t drink it often because it’s a bit more beer than I can handle. And I usually don’t like amber beers, but this was yum.
- I got way more birthday greetings than I’m accustomed to. Mostly from Facebook and Twitter. It was very nice to have an inbox filled with good wishes instead of reminders, sales emails, and junk.
- The apartment office left a balloon, a card, and a couple of cookies at my door. I’ve not had a balloon in years.
- Dad gave me a pair of lovely silver earrings from a Celtic shop he found on the trip he and Mom just returned from. I wore them in my new driver’s license photo.
- Got a card and $20 (the usual) from my grandparents…and then a follow-up email to make sure I got birthday greetings on the actual day, just in case the card didn’t make it (not the usual).
- Little things, but they still made my day: The weather was gorgeous; cool and sunny. And my hair looked fantastic.

Quite a lot of fuss – certainly more than I’m used to. I like it. :)

I celebrated Samhain yesterday. A thick, rather ghostly fog had rolled in overnight, which made me smile because it was so in keeping with the holiday.

I enjoy decorating my study for the sabbats and the decorations have been up since ANZAC Day, which always marks the start of Samhain’s season for me. There’s a pair of fluffy black skulls hanging from my door. A couple of months ago I bought a set of sabbat banners and the appropriate one is currently hanging up as well, decorated with a cheeky looking black cat. I also covered my altar with a black cloth and was amazed by the change in energy it brought. A photo of my grandfather is sitting on the altar along with pieces of bloodstone, jet, onyx, obsidian, carnelian, amazonite and jade.

I spent some time in the morning bundled up in layers and sitting outside to reaffirm my commitment to my spiritual path. The sun came out as I was finishing up and a wagtail perched nearby—an unusual visitor for these parts. He brought me a special message.

Since Samhain marks the start of the new year, I did some further reflecting on the past year and thinking about my goals for the new year.

The day disappeared entirely too quickly. I would have liked to spend some time sitting with my grandfather, but it felt like I was trying to fit too much into the day as it was. There was a writing group I attended in the evening and I had to spend some time preparing for that. I think next year I shall try and give the holiday more space.

It has now been a full cycle since I started this goal. I’ve given some thought to marking it as done but have decided against it. I enjoy this goal too much and I’d like to put some more work towards celebrating the smaller occasions. I’ve enjoyed reading over my entries.

I celebrated Mabon on Friday. It was quite a busy holiday, but I got a bit of a chance to reflect on things. Mabon is often called Pagan Thanksgiving, so I have been working with the theme a bit. Over the last year I’ve kept lists of thankyou cards to write and I made a start on them.

I also kept a list of accomplishments which I took outside and burned (in a fire-safe container, of course). It may seem strange, but it was difficult for me to decide that’s what I was going to do with the list. Some part of me wanted to cling to it, to wave it around and say “Look at all these wonderful things I’ve done!” Realising that was what made me decide to burn it. It also seemed to fit in with the themes of Mabon—harvesting and then clearing away the old to make way for the new. I won’t be held back by the accomplishments of the past year; I shall be free to go out and do new and more outrageous things.

The book launch was another harvest of sorts for me. I’ve worked so hard on it, particularly over the last four months, that it was nice to celebrate, to finally let go of it and send it out into the world. Many of my friends and family attended, which was wonderful for me. The editor said many nice things about me and gave me a bunch of flowers on behalf of the committee. I had a very lovely dinner out afterward with some of the authors who had come from interstate. I even got to sign a few books, though I was neither editor nor author (simply behind-the-scenes help).

All in all, a very interesting harvest this year.

I’ll be assisting the editor with her next anthology, beginning around Samhain. It will also mark a full cycle on this goal. I haven’t quite decided yet whether to mark this as done then or to keep it on a bit longer.

Discardia is set to begin again in about three weeks time, but I feel called to start early. In particular, I’d like to focus on three questions this time around:

• What do I cling to?
• What can I give away?
• What can I share?

that I must feel like crap on holidays. (Well, I felt okay on New Year’s, but only because I was in agony on Christmas. Not a very fair trade-off, if you ask me.)

So, V-day. Not only am I crampy, with all the assorted fun that goes along with that, but I bit my tongue in my sleep last night. Hard enough to wake me up, and I sleep very soundly. Which means today’s plans (buy food, cook and eat a nice dinner, drink some wine, give R those scraps of satin and lace I’ve been promising him) look a little shaky. (Well, the scraps are definitely out. He’s cool with it, though…that’s the kind of gift you can always take a raincheck on. :)

I’m determined, though. We’re going to do something. I’ve got a couple of movies (28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later – he’s seen neither, I’ve only seen the first, and we both get queasy watching “romantic” flicks). I’ve pulled out a “dressy” dress, one I bought years ago and have never had the chance to wear, and am washing it up for tonight. And as soon as I manage to pry myself off the computer, I’ll run to the store for some food. If nothing else, I can pick up some sushi…it’ll make him happy, and I won’t have to cook.

Not sure about the wine, though. Just the thought of it makes my tongue hurt.

A holiday was exactly what I needed and I seemed more in tune with this Sabbat than I have with the others lately. In doing a little research on this holiday I came across tales of Tailtiu and Macha—tales of superhuman efforts made to bring something new in the world. The day before Lughnasadh I had just finished helping to prepare a book of other people’s stories for publishing. It has been a massive effort, with many things that have gone wrong. But I have stuck with it and I know I am going to be pleased with the harvest.

The day itself was quiet… a much needed break. I took some time to bake some bread and eat some blackberries. I watered my garden. I remembered how much I love the smell of sandalwood oil in my burner. I noticed the fig tree over the fence beginning to fruit. I did a lot of reading.

It was just what I needed.

No, not my engagement. My mother’s. An old family friend threw her a dinner party to celebrate. It was filled with other old family friends, many of whom I haven’t seen in a while and all of whom are lovely.

It was a very hot evening, so we started out on the balcony and watched the sun set and the rain roll in. Then I was treated to the best meal I’d had in a very long time. Cottage pie, eggplant parmagiana, cantalini bean quiche and to top it all off the tastiest apricot crumble I’ve ever eaten, made from homegrown fruit. There were also many long, interesting conversations and much laughter. And champagne. I had such a wonderful time and so did my mum.

Australia Day was yesterday. I didn’t get a chance to celebrate, as I had to work (and on a public holiday, too!). But it occured to me that I don’t really celebrate it anyway. The same friends who hosted the engagement party were throwing a huge BBQ. Other friends went swimming. One even wrote a post about some infamous (and some less well known) bushrangers. These various celebrations highlighted that I’m missing out on a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the country I live in and get out into my community more, while also having a little fun. Definitely something to think about for next year.

I missed the last Discardia due to the fact that I was house sitting. But now I am definitely home with no plans of going anywhere for the foreseeable future, I’ve decided that this week is going to be a replacement Discardia. I intend to focus on two things—making war on all the dust in my house and finishing as many of those things on my “to do” list as possible. I’m rather looking forward to it.

I had a lot of trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year, mostly because of all the time spent bouncing between houses. I didn’t get time to put up my Christmas decorations at home and neither of the houses I was housesitting at had any up either. That makes a surprising amount of difference.

However, my mum came to pick me up in the morning on Christmas Eve and we spent the day together, which really helped a lot. I ended up having three different Christmas celebrations this year—dinner Christmas Eve with Mum; Christmas Day with my sweetheart’s family; and lunch on Boxing Day with my Dad. There was way too much food and heaps of presents. In the end I had an absolutely wonderful time.

I’m spending New Years with my sweetheart, as it is a very special time for us. We don’t have anything in particular planned (at least that I know about) which is fine by me. It has been so busy lately that some quiet time will be very much appreciated.