Taking Inventory of Myself this New Years

‘Tis the season to evaluate my position in this world. What have I accomplished? What do I want to accomplish? How do I line up against my own expectations? Well the last one is easy – I never meet my own expectations, but in some perverse way I think that’s a good thing – it’s what keeps me driven to improve myself.

2007 in Review
I sold my house, moved in with the man of my dreams and am building what feels like the perfect nest with him. This pretty much overshadows everything else – my love and life with Emmot is more than I ever hoped for.

After a fair amount of inner-turmoil, I made some career decisions and changes that seem to be a good move. It’s still early, but I feel fairly confident that I am bringing valuble skills to the position, and in turn, the position will provide me with plenty of challenges and growth potential.

I have significantly engaged in the business and inner-workings of my spiritual community. This has pluses and minuses – on one hand I feel more “connected” to the church, but on the other hand, it is, at times, difficult to separate from the business of the church to experience the pure spiritual aspect which brought me there in the first place. A balance I need to work on inside myself.

I feel like I am making some progress in getting plugged in to some community and social justice causes. There is still much work to be done here – there always will be – but I am making progress. I am focusing most importantly on “walking the walk” – I have a long way to go, but I feel like I am making progress in bringing home to my everyday life the changes I want to see in the world.

My Vision for 2008
My partner and I are planning a handfasting ceremony this spring (on the Vernal Equinox) to celebrate our love and commitment to each other. He is a constant source of inspiration for me. I love him and appreciate him everyday!

I strive to do more toward spiritual growth. Emmot and I are discussing hosting some Earth/Nature centered ceremonies, book discussion groups, etc. at our home to further bond with people of like-mind and to celebrate the aspects of our spirituality that are important to us.

I am not getting any younger and would like to make some life-style changes that will help my health as I continue to age. I need to lose some weight; I need to increase my cardio vascular capacity and overall fitness level. I need to stop telling myself that I’ll do this “tomorrow.”

I want to be a person I am proud of being every day.

Celebrating Winter Solstice!

I love the Winter Solstice! It’s been sort of an odd revelation to me – anyone who knows me would think that my newly-developed appreciation for Winter Solstice had developed out of my growing connection to nature-focused spirituality. But actually it developed independent of my pagan studies. Of course I do enjoy the fact that while everyone else is running around the mall, I can sit back and meditate on the rotation of the Earth instead. And I guess in a way that lead me to it – over the past few years I have thought more about the Solstice (if only as a means to NOT think about Christmas). But all that cynicism aside – here is what I truly appreciate about the Winter Solstice - - -

Where I live I am able to enjoy all four seasons, and, although I try very hard to embrace them all, winter always feels longer than the rest. In reality it isn’t, but December to March just feels so long – cold – dark . . .

But then I realized what the Winter Solstice really means – it’s the return of the sun!! It may be the first official day of Winter, but every day from the Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice contains a little more sunlight than the day before! So even though December is only the beginning of the winter season, Winter Solstice brings longer days (which means spring and summer are on their way!) I know those extra minutes of sunlight each day do not equate to warmth – but psychologically, knowing that every day is a little longer, really does help me to look at the rest of winter in a different light (pardon the pun). January and February might be bitter cold, but the sun is out longer every day and in the end, the sun WILL conquer the cold!

So come Winter Solstice – brighten our days and warm our hearts!