Happy Halloween Mi Amigos!

i just read this funny article on Slate magazine.  It is about how hard it is for wiccans to organize ritual on Halloween (or any other wiccan holiday).  It made me laugh because it is so true.  

Right Wynd?    heehee... oy..

i love doing ritual but the logistics are donting.  i always feel lighter afterward though.

If you go read the article you might be interested in the related articles.  They are at the top where the article begins.  One i read was about the economics of witch killing and another about facing the realities of the wiccan past.  Let me know what you think.

i discovered a new blog by another woman who raises chickens.  Check the list of blogs i follow.  It's called My First Ladies.  She named all her chickens after first ladies.   I grabbed this picture there.

This is sooo fabulous

i was blown away watching this.  A woman playing a bag pipe, Yo Yo Ma with his cello, a viola, two hand drums and an accordion!  Feel the joy!  

A brisk October wind

It's been a week since i lost Nathaniel and i don't feel much like writing but think i should anyway.  i've gotten my yard, garden boxes and chicken coop all ready for winter.  Wish i had a camera to post pictures with; my tiny farm in the city is looking very tidy and bedded down for winter.

Don't get me wrong, there is always something to do around here.  i never get to the end of my to-do list but it somehow makes me feel content.  i will clean up Nathaniel's grave sometime soon enough, i know the right time will come.

Danny come over bright and early this morning with his trailer hitched to his rig.  He took Paul and i to Burns Feed Store for bales of straw.  i had been thinking about stalling the purchase with money so tight but with Danny all cheerful and early what could i do but go with the flow.  

Thank you Danny!

So, the bales of straw are stacked around the chicken coop for warmth.  i might need one or two more.  i'll sit on it for awhile.  Paul and the neighbor Oscar helped me put the canvas canopy over the coop last weekend.  The chickens are living large.  Their little world is looking spiffy, if i must say so myself.  The canopy will keep most of their yard dry.  Plus, Oscar built a little shelter for them.  It will give them a break from the winter east winds.

Speaking of winds, today was bright, warm, beautiful and blustery.  Nice!  One problem, leaves.  In one day's time my yard is covered in leaves.  There has been gentle droppings of leaves lately but today that changed.  And it's suppose to rain before next weekend.  Oy.  See, i told you the to-do list is never complete.  i barely get home from work before dark so it will be November 1st before i rake.  

Wow, November 1st.  Three days before the election.  Busy work for a jittery heart.  Sounds good.  Larry David posted a column on Huffington Post that i really related to.   As jittery as i feel, i am at the same time, somewhat, dare i say, just a little bit... teeny tiny, wait for it... hopeful.  Ahhhhh, the sweet taste of hope.  i almost hate to hope.  The agony of crushed hopes is a very powerful deterrent to too much hoping around.  Teeny tiny pun there, teeny tiny... little pun.

Well, well, what do you know?  i didn't feel like writing but i did it anyway.  Good.  Feels good, like a brisk October wind.

Peace and love, 

C

Sweet Nathaniel

My sweet Nathaniel died last night.  i've had dogs and cats all my life and it doesn't get any easier to lose them.  

i thought i'd write about this but i can't find words.  i wish i had a picture of him.

Love to all,

Cynthia

Women's health in air quotes

It took me awhile to find video of John McCain's startling attitude toward any woman in the position of having to decide between her own life and that of her unborn child.  Not only does he think he has the medical knowledge to make that decision for her but he thinks he has the right. He thinks he has the "right" to play God over her.

You arrogant @#$%$#@....   I didn't get the memo; did God die leaving you in charge?  

Not only do you NOT have a degree in law, business or economics, you do not have a degree in medicine.  IT IS NOT YOUR CALL!  Do you hear me?  Keep your hands off my body you bleeping, bleep, bleep!

You are NOT the pope, a priest, a rabbi or a minister so you have no standing to even advise a woman on her possible offenses against God.  IT IS NOT YOUR CALL!

A few minutes with your "plan" for healthcare, or your "plan" for education, or your "plan" to end the obscenity in Iraq and I can see how important that infant's life is to you.... NOT!

Just as rape in not about sex, this is not about the "rights of the unborn".  This is about controlling women, keeping them dependent and poor, about controlling their opportunities and about keeping power in the hands of the few.

Be forewarned, men, the very first thing to happen after you take women's "rights" away will be the loss of your own, ala, the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Tell you what; if you have such a desire to control women and their reproduction why don't you move to Afghanistan. 

Please imagine air quotes around what I am about to say.  Here's to your health, John.

A little gem to give your heart a lift

Sorry for the bad word, Mom and Dad.  

i don't know what you think of the image above.  I hope it's true.  i do feel like he's already in charge.  What really pi##es me off is that the Bushies and the corporate money changers are looting our coffers on their way out.  Barack can't do anything about that until January.

October cucumbers, winterization and how Neo-cons make their caves comfy and warm

i can see cucumbers from my kitchen window.  i'll have to pick them later.  i am officially on vacation so first order of business... blog?

my fingers are cold; kind of hard to type but here goes.  i see Kim Antieau is having some luck in her computer wars.  Fall harvest, sister, fall harvest.  My friend Wynd is schlepping a cast on her broken foot.  my girls, the chickens, are laying great right now.  They really are spoiled rotten... love them!

So it's October and i'm picking cucumbers, amazing.  The cucks go to the chickens, diced up along with a couple tablespoons of cottage cheese and clover sprouts.  i hope i am not making them fat.  i have lots of stuff around here for them to eat.  i have some eggplant and cantaloupe grown in my yard that i cut open for them.  my cantaloupes are really small, baseball size, good though.  A half of one will disappear by the end of the day in their gallinero (coop).  Of course, they always have their layers feed.  Life is good for my girls but it is getting cold and i need to winterize their house and yard.  

That's what vacations are for, don'tcha know.  Ya.

So, the goals for this week are to winterize my garden boxes, the gallinero and my house.  The garden boxes need to have the compost put into them so they can stew through the rainy months to come.  Pick the last of the raspberries, the pumpkins and of course, the cucumbers.  Build a rain shelter for the gallinas (chickens), and wrap the hen house in bails of straw for warmth.

How's that for a list?  i also want to fall-clean my house and get out my winter bedding.  And then there is the whole sewing/craft corner of my living room that is begging for attention.  Always more to do than can be done.  Welcome to my life.  Your's too?  Ya sister/brother... fist bump!

OK, here comes the political portions of tonight's program.  The Neo-cons have just about cleaned out the vault of our treasury and are showing signs of willingness to hand power back to us, the American people.  Now that they have laid our country in ruin, the Bushies are gesturing toward the McCain and Obama campaigns with transition team coordination.  The Bushies seem almost happy to hand the reins over to either candidate.  Even seemingly, to be willing to expedite the process.  They are sooo ready to get out of town.  No doubt they have holes (caves?) to run back to where they have stowed away all their ill-gotten gain.

Reluctant shifter

i don't talk about my anger so it probably gets it's due in other ways.  i don't mind being political here in this blog but expressing my anger is a tricky wick. 

i don't want to pass it on, i want to exorcise it.  

But i don't know how to keep it from passing on and i don't know how to exorcise it.  All i seem to be able to do is exercise it, which passes it along and does not exorcise it.

i'm thinking about doing some kind of shamanic ritual.  i would like to get in touch with a part of me that i have locked away.  

Here is the beginning of a story i wrote a couple years ago.  

Reluctant Shifter

She was a fox.  She lived in the world and was rarely seen.  She was careful and deliberate in her movements and avoided other creatures.  

This isolation became habit and the woman almost forgot how to shift back to being a woman. She mostly forgot she ever was a woman.  

What she loved most in her world was smell.  It was like color to the woman she had been.  If the wind could blow a rainbow around and color could float on the air in whiffs and gusts and in iridescent clouds, that would come close to describing the scents and odors she experienced.

She felt drawn or was pulled back to the woman.  Others depended on her, needed her. 

Goddess called and the fox knew she had a mission to complete.  Reluctantly she became visible, everything smelled grey and she stood up to greet the morning. 

Something in that storyline is resonating with me today.  i understand fox.  She likes her fox world.  She wants to be there.  It's heaven.   

But Goddess calls and she has her mission.  Oy....

i get that.  That's what a soldier does, and i am a guerrero de la luz (a story for another time).  That is what a nun does.  She surrenders herself to devotion.  Even though the fox is reluctant she doesn't give in to her own desires.  

i imagine that fox is a much better woman than i am.  i resent my mission, so to speak.  And i'm angry.  i just want to shift back to that peaceful, nurturing place.  Selfish, selfish, cynthia.  Bad girl!

There is a lot of metaphore in my post today; a lot of imaginings that probably only make sense to me, but i feel a little better.  Did i pass any anger along?  i hope not.