The Wheel Turns Anew

We give thanks, for the dawn has broken!

The newborn Sun has vanquished the horrible night!

And though winter's chill is still to come,

We are strengthened by its light.

We honor the Morrigan in this time of cold

We welcome Bridghid as she is born anew

We honor the Caelleach and her wisdom of old

And give thanks for the skills given us by Lugh.

--Jeska Moonwillow

The Darkest Longest Night

The moon is new on the Longest Night;

the darkness is complete.

So as we await the Yule morn's light

we retreat to our hearth for heat.

We ask Your blessing on our flame,

that it last till the Night is done,

And we give thanks for the blessings we have

as we await the sun.

--Jeska Moonwillow

Through Passion I Gain Strength

As an aside to yesterday's entry, I was talking to my sweetie about how we feel strongly that even negative things can happen for a reason.

With the tough work schedules (and challenging personalities to work with) that I've had recently, I had very much put spirituality on the back burner as of late, in favor of focusing on just the mundane tasks that need to be done.

It's kind of interesting how, now that someone has disparaged my spiritual path to my face, it suddenly feels much more important to me.  I've talked more about my spirituality to my sweetie in the past two days than I had in the previous six months, I think.

I guess when things can be stagnant, too peaceful, if you will, it can be easy just to set something aside and believe it is safe.
But once that thing is attacked, it can become something that is worth defending, worth being passionate about.  And in using that passion to protect and defend something that you now realize is important enough to be worth defending, I think it can bring great strength to your connection to that thing, where you are no longer content to let it gather dust.

Maybe peace really is a lie....

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I've been debating with myself about writing about this for the past day and a half, but I do think I need to.

Yesterday I had an unpleasant interaction with a coworker; she was talking about her schedule and how she had made herself an appointment on December 22 and was hoping I could switch with her so she would have the shorter workday.  I replied that the 22nd was actually a holiday for me, so I actually wished I had that day off, and definitely wasn't interested in working even more hours that day.  She then asked what holiday it was, I replied, "Yule," and she responds, "Well, I never heard of that."
Later, she brings it up again, and seems genuinely curious about what the holiday is about, so I give her the brief explanation about how Yule is the day of or after the Solstice, to celebrate having made it through the Longest Night, and that the tradition of the Yule Log comes in because in the Old Days, you would save your biggest log to use on the Longest Night.  She takes this all in, and what she says next is:

"I don't believe you're really a Pagan, though--I think you're too nice to be one of those."

Even though I should have known better, because this person has demonstrated some bigotry before, for some reason this statement hit me like a hammer, and I have to admit, I lost my cool.  What I ended up saying back to her, without even thinking first, is, "I think you are too stupid to know how offensive that was."

Naturally, she decided that she was the injured party after that, and wanted an apology from me for having called her 'stupid.'  I refused to apologize, telling her that it's doesn't matter if she knows what Paganism is or not; if she doesn't understand that telling someone who identifies as Pagan that Pagans aren't nice people is offensive, then stupid is exactly what that is.


So anyway, I felt this interaction was untoward enough that I should report it to my supervisor, so I gave an accurate account.  The response I got was that I really should not have shared, because in doing so I set myself up for comments exactly like that one.

I have to say, the response has also given me a lot of mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I can agree, to the extent that one shouldn't "cast pearls before swine," to use a metaphor that's familiar to 'them', or as the Rede* would say, "With a fool no season spend, nor be counted as [her] friend."

But on the other, it feels a bit chilling, as if I brought it on myself by daring to speak about my "minority" spirituality, even though Christians enjoy the privilege of speaking freely about their spirituality by default.  I don't think I like that, and it makes me wonder where the line would be drawn, if it wasn't drawn right there.  If I mentioned my wife at home, could someone say, "Really? You seem too nice to be a lesbian."  So forth.

Paganwiccan.about.com (a reference I happen to like) seems to both back her up and disagree, which muddles the mixture even more.  In the page I linked, on the one hand, it says that a coworker (as opposed to a supervisor) can basically be as bigoted as they want to be unless it rises to the level of harassment, and my recourse is to put my big girl panties on.  But on the other, it says that if a coworker is "asking you questions in a friendly way, it might be a good way to educate them."  What about a coworker who asks in a friendly way, but apparently does so as a pretext to find out about my beliefs so she can poop on them?

I'm guessing the answer is, I should consider myself 'on notice', to use the Judge-Judyism, that this person has a 'propensity' for bigotry, and be more circumspect around her.
And, more generally, not to cast pearls unless I can handle having a swine step on them.
And then, once I've cast my sphere of protection, to certainly report any unwanted religious overtures as potential harassment, to maintain that protection.

With a fool no season spend,

nor be counted as his friend.

Be soft of eye and light of touch,

speak ye little, listen much.

*: Although I no longer identify as Wiccan, I did 'start' that way, and while I ultimately found all the prescribed ritual to be a bit stuffy, I still have great respect for the Rede of the Wiccae.

Maven

Okay, so the Julep stuff I talked about came last Wednesday!

The Welcome Box itself came with two colors and a base coat; I added on the Plié Wand art system (which attaches to any polish bottle brush to give it a paintbrush handle, and comes with some specialty brushes and a dotting tool), a few of the "Savvy Deals" (aka clearance items) and qualified for a free "Newport" gift set with two more colors and a bracelet.

So I have a total of five colors of polish:  From left to right, there is Beverly and Sera from the welcome kit along with the base coat, then there is Something Blue and Harley from the Newport set, and the last is a special "crackle finish" silver called Glenda.

I also got a couple of lip glosses, a liquid eye shadow, and a mascara, all of which seem to work really well.  I especially like the eye sheen much more than I thought I would; it doesn't take much at all to cover well and it lasted all day even without a base coat or anything.

Naturally, I had to try out my new products as soon as they showed up, so Wednesday afternoon I tried out the Newport set and the crackle silver to do some blue nails with silver tips and a crackle-silver accent nail:

It didn't come out perfect, but I thought it was fine for a first effort.  I wore that for a few days, and then when the weekend hit I decided to try the other colors:

I did this one on Saturday, and it's still looking great with no chips and not much edge wear even this evening.  I'm impressed at how good they still look.

I've actually made a couple more orders already, which probably marks me as an addict.  The "Secret Store" thing happened over the weekend, and I got a good deal on a manicure tool set and a carrying case to put all this stuff in.  Then tonight, I gave in to the "100° OF MYSTERY BOX", so I have another round of surprise products coming after that.  I'm going to see if the Bombshell Dots manicure lasts long enough for some fresh colors to show up. ;)

If you, too, would like to become addicted to fabulous nail polishes that get sent to you every month, you can use my referral link, which will get you a free Welcome Box (and will get me a $15 credit to feed my new addiction with).

Pretty Princess

I firmly believe that all women deserve to feel beautiful.  Makeup, perfume, nail polish, and all those other beauty products aren't for other people--even though the other people are the ones who will be seeing it most of the day--make no mistake, these things are for you, for the feeling you get when you see yourself in the mirror, or smell your own perfume, or look at your hands and smile at your cute nails, and in that moment you feel pretty.

One of my first memories with makeup was with nail polish; my mom would put nail polish on me and I thought my hands looked so pretty that way.  It seems like in the past year I've started to neglect my beauty routine, and especially my nails, though... it seems like it's just too easy to get too busy and let the polish get all chipped up, and then once I take it off but don't have time to re-do it, then I just go around with unpainted nails for a few weeks.

But no more--My sweetie got me inspired by getting me started on Julep!  They have a 'regular' online store, but their primary offering is their "Maven" beauty subscription:  It's $20 a month if you pay 3 months at a time, and each month you get new nail colors and other beauty products shipped to you, default selections are based on your "Style Profile" but are customizable on the site each month.  I am a 'Bombshell', according to their quiz, and I got the little blog badge to prove it. :D

I haven't received anything just yet; after looking for a day or two, I finally splurged yesterday on the $60 3-month sub along with about $60 more in add-ons and sale stuff (you know, to get things kick-started).  I will be getting a "Welcome Box" along with the other stuff I ordered, but I'm going to have to wait until the end of August to do my first customizable "Maven Box."  They're threatening to send me a "Secret Sale" at the first of the month though, which will be hard to resist in my current mindframe.

I am excited!  It's a lovely feeling to feel pretty.  I haven't been having that often enough recently, but I think that is going to change now.

Semi-Homemade Witchery: Freebies!

As much as I prefer to cook from scratch, that isn't always the reality, especially with a full-time job and everything.  In addition, if I pay attention to sales, coupons, and special offers, stores will often just give me things. The main components of tonight's dinner, shown here, were both Free Special Offers from the Just 4 U program at Safeway (my personal favorite grocer); I was all too happy to accept them at this price, naturally.

I know that my Grandmother would never have turned down free ingredients either, just as I'm sure that in the old days, witches made magic with what was available to them, and in that spirit, I couldn't resist trying to put my own mark on the decidedly pedantic (but free) Hamburger Helper.  In addition to the ground beef (from the freezer), I added the rest of the slicer tomato that I had cut for the Mediterranean Turkey Burgers earlier, some frozen peas and corn that had been lingering in the freezer, and some leftover fresh herbs (parsley and thyme).  Also, I reduced the amount of water in the instructions, since I expected there would be some extra moisture from the tomatoes.

And to the free Crescent Rounds, we just added butter. (What did you expect?)

The resulting meal was actually quite good!  It was a nice compromise between being quick and convenient, and at least partially feeling as though I Crafted it myself.  I'm happy with it, and will be just as happy with the leftovers later in the week when I am working overtime.