All things considered, today was a pretty good day for me.
I wanted to wake up earlier than normal and get my morning pages done then… That didn’t happen, lol. I did get up earlier than I have been (7:03 as opposed to 7:19) but not as early as I’d’ve liked (like 6ish) and not early enough to do the pages and my morning stuff.
In fact… I didn’t get them done until almost noon. -.- Bad Taylor! I know. But you can’t expect my first day to be perfect, can you? I did rather marvelously, though, thanks to some nice kinks in my class schedule. (Two substitute teachers, which meant no work in those classes, and a test, which meant free time after.)
I sorted out the binder that I’ll be using for a paper journal and the likes. (Not my morning pages – they go in a separate notebook and get paper clipped to the cover after I write them.) I already had the binder all made up nice and pretty.
I have five dividers that are transluscent, and to put right behind the dividers for each section I had drawn a representation of each element (a big fire, a river, some trees, a sun behind clouds, and a candle reflected in a dark mirror) on a piece of loose-leaf, then colored a piece of tracing paper with Sharpies in the same pattern. The first section (which is the fire) I’m putting notes in from the SpiritsCast 101 shows and notes – right now I have a page listing different things under the four headings of “Light, Listening, Expressing, and Offering,” a page with the eight practices outlined in the first 101, and a checklist of the “what you’ll need” things. The second section (water) is divination notes. The third (trees/earth) is for journalling, separate of the morning pages. The fourth (sun and clouds/air) is spells and songs – because I am a lyricist and I believe that both have power. The last section (the candle and mirror/spirit) is for “Ritual and Ritual Notes”.
Getting everything organized like this makes me all excited and giddy. (I feel like such a nerd, but I’m fine with that, lol!)
I also did the divination deal today. I used a deck of playing cards that I’ve been randomly divining with for a few months, and wrote down results and thoughts and so on in my divination notes section. I’m using playing cards for a few different reasons.
One, I discovered last night, my Tarot deck is missing several cards and I have no friggin’ clue where they are. I wouldn’t feel right using a deck missing cards. If it was only one it might be different, but there are about six or seven cards missing. I’m sad cause I’ve had that deck for a pretty long time, as far as things I own go.
Two, I find using playing cards to be a little bit easier, in terms of me remembering meanings of them. Tarot and/or Oracle decks might be easier in figuring out, what with having descriptive pictures, but the simplicity of the playing cards works best for me.
Three, I really love the way these cards shuffle. They’re 100% plastic, which means I can shuffle them the “easy” way with no bending, ripping, or sliptting. Hell yeah!
Four, I am unemployed. So I have to make due with what I have and cannot go buy new pretty Tarot or Oracle decks that I might enjoy more visually. Oh well.
And throughout all of this I still managed to write part of another section for my book and get the files on that sorted out all nice and pretty on my kick-ass 8 gig Fort Libinum stick.
(…I name my storage space. The 8 gig SD card that acts as a storage expansion for my Acer is called Fort Talis and the 1 gig SD card I use in my MP3 player to put podcasts on used to be called Fort Tivium. My C drive is named Savilumia. I have no idea where any of these names came from, they just pop into my head and I type them in the “Device Name” box. Libinum is used for my book files, school work, and SpiritsCast notes.)
AND hang out with the hubby.
Damn, I’m amazing!
Seriously switching gears: if I may ask everyone to take a moment for the thirteen (and possibly more) lives lost today at Ft. Hood. At least eleven of these people were soldiers, including the gunman himself. Some are speculating that a lack of proper psychiatric care for PTSD may have been a factor in the gunman’s actions, and possibly the almost constant stream of deployment that seems to be habit in America’s current military engagement. All are agreeing that this was a tragedy.
As an American, I consider every one of these soldiers heroes. As one on a warrior’s path, I consider them brothers and sisters.
Please take a moment, say a prayer, light a candle, or simply meditate on your own country’s military forces, what they contribute, and what they sacrifice in service to their country.
Thank you.
Locked and Loaded 