Witchy Wednesday: Lunar New Year Reflections

I release Yesterday and start fresh with Today. This year, I am letting go of ...

I will focus my attention both inward and outward to identify and let go of the things in my life that are holding me back from happiness and personal success. I am working very hard to reconcile old anger and hurt that I have been holding onto for too long. It isn't helping me to keep it tight to my heart. The people who planted the seeds are gone. I do not want to be the one that tends that garden in their absence. I would rather resew it with feelings and experiences and people who bring and foster positivity in my life.  

I am ready to create a Life I Love. This year I am calling in ...

This year I am calling in joy for joy's sake, spontaneity, and love. If I want birthday cake in June and my birthday is February, I am going to have cake. I am going to dig my toes into the ground and absorb the sunshine more often. Smell the fresh cut scent of grass and the chilly crispness of a new snow. Just slow down and appreciate and enjoy the things around me more. 

I live with Purpose and Passion. These are the gifts I plan to share with the world ...

I am going to say and show 'I love you' to the people in my life I love more often. There is no too much to loving someone. I have such amazing people in my life. They deserve to know and feel that I love them. I want to explore my thoughts, beliefs, and practices to share my most authentic self with the world. I want to explore and share my creativity more often, whether it is on a work project or an improvement project at home, or a creative arts project that I plan to gift or sell. I want to create more this year. Grief has really taken a toll on my creative well, and I want to fill that back up this year.

Letters to the Beyond: To Daddy

 

01/04/2023

Daddy,

I miss you more than words can express. I miss picking up the phone and calling you just to talk. I miss discussing the books we're reading and the television shows we've both been watching. I miss buying you the newest gadgets. I miss being able to ask you how to fix something that's broken or asking you for advice on a new plan we have for just about anything. You were my sounding board for life. Mostly I just miss hearing your voice. I miss you laugh and how you said my name. I miss knowing that you're there.

I know your brothers miss you too. You were their anchor that held the family together. Without you and Mama, we are all adrift. I hope they are keeping in touch on their own. I try and reach out to each of them every now and then just to check in and see how they are doing. 

I hope this letter finds you happy, covered in grease, pockets full of tools and keys, with your hounds by your side. I'm sure even in a perfect Heaven there'd be things in need of fixing and dogs in need of pets.

Love,

Your Doodlebug

1/28/2023

Hi Daddy,

I am starting another year without you, and I miss you and Mama terribly. I miss the sound of your voices and the feel of your hugs. I miss being able to ask for your advice, but mostly just being able to talk to you about a little of everything. You are going to laugh, but I even miss you two bickering. Not a lot on that one, but a little.

Please watch over Grandmother if you can. She fell and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Now she's in a rehabilitation center going through physical therapy so hopefully she can be strong enough to go home soon. She's been there two months. She's made a lot of progress during that time, but she has a ways to go. Her walking has been improving, but she still can't get up from the bed without help. That's scary. Hopefully she'll be able to reach a point where she can go back home safely and there are no more falls. Please keep an eye on her for us and send some encouragement and healing her way if you can.

Love,

Ralene

Daily Meditation - Elevating your Energy

Close your eyes, steady your breathing, and feel the earth beneath you  and around you. Bring to mind one thing in your life that embodies  _______________ (gratitude, love, family, peace, courage, balance, etc.) and focus on it. Feel the energies it brings come into and flow through your body. Where does it settle? Does it have a color? A smell? A general feeling? Continue to breathe slowly and steadily. Let the energy expand to fill your whole body and then spill over into your aura and out creating a bubble of energy around you. Imagine it bringing joy, love, and peace to all it comes in contact with, both to yourself and to others.

1) Gratitude

My gratitude is golden yellow like the light of an early summer sun. Warm and intense light without the burn. It's the color of dandelion flowers and smells of fresh cut grass. 

2) Family

The aura of my Family is green like early Spring grass. It nourishes and feeds me, body and soul. It smells like the leaves of a healthy tomato plant, sounds like the snap of beans, and tastes like a sweet, sun-warmed melon.

3) Love

Love is pink and red and purple. Soft pinks of new love, a little innocent and a little wild. Red hot for love that has come into its own, blazing bright. You can't look away. Deep wine red purple for love that is strong and mature and has withstood storms and battles and come out better for it. It smells like cinnamon and oak and vanilla.

4) Peace

Peace is blue like a pool of cool water that is so deep you can't see the bottom on it. No smell, no sound, nothing to touch but the water. It's full of silence and a sense of calm isolation. It's beautiful and welcoming and a bit frightening too. It's frightening because I don't trust what is just beneath the surface that I can't see.

5) Courage

Courage is gray and shines with flecks of silver. It's the strong steel beam that runs through the middle of the biggest structures. It's the reflection of the light off of shiny plate armor. It's the sharp edge of a blade. It smells like machine oil and the metallic tang of blood.

6) Balance

Balance is a kaleidoscope of browns, the color of every bark of every tree that reaches toward the sky and the color of every type of soil that covers the ground. It is strong and flexible and vital for life. It smells like the forest after a rain, clean and loamy and a tiny bit of decomposing vegetation. Life sprouts from the ground, we grow and live, and then we return to it again to fuel life anew after death. A continuous cycle.

Letters to the Beyond: To Mama

12-28-2022 

Dear Mama,

I wish you had recognized your own value more. You rarely had a kind word for yourself, yet you did so much good in our world. You took care of everyone in your life, event those who didn't deserve it. And it wasn't just those near and dear to you. You sacrificed so that complete strangers could have food on the table, clothing to wear, and a few presents under the tree come the holidays.

Not enough people said thank you for all you did. Not enough people showed you and Daddy the same generosity when you were in need over the years. Not enough people who loved you told you that you were king, beautiful, and important. They should have because you were all of those things and more. You never understood how loved and needed you were and still are by so many. I hope wherever you are now that you know.

Love,

Your Daughter

1-16-2023

Dear Mama,

I miss being able to pick up the phone and call you. I miss being able to ask for advice on health stuff because maybe I knew you'd experienced something similar or being able to ask for tips on a particular recipe I remembered you making. 

The whole family misses you. You did so much for them that they never realized until you weren't there to make sure it got done. Grandmother misses you so much. Her sisters are gone now, and she talks about so many in the family and the community who have passed in the last couple of years. It can't be easy for her to be one of the few left. You called and talked to her just because you wanted to, and you really listened. You randomly showed up with a meal or a special treat just because. You never treated her like something she had to do. She was always someone you wanted to see. You being gone has been particularly hard on her.

Lots of other people miss you too. I get messages from friends often saying how much they miss you and Daddy. You would never have believed it or admitted that you were loved while you were here. I hope you realize it now wherever you are.

Love,

Your Daughter

1-30-2023

Dear Mama,

Grandmother has been in the hospital and then a rehab unit for about a week now. She is getting better, but there is still mending and physical therapy needed before she can come home. Please watch over her and lend her a helping hand in healing if you can. I know if you were here with us, you'd be impatiently trying to get her home. And you'd be bringing her meals because she doesn't like the food they've been serving her. You were always so good at taking care of us all.

I love you.

Your Daughter

Witchy Wednesday Writing Prompt: A Letter for the Lost

Letters to Heaven by Osnat Tzadok.

One of my witchy writing exercises recently suggested writing letters to the dead as a way of processing the grief and all the feelings attached. I have been walking around with so much unresolved anger since my mom passed and no way to resolve it. Nothing left but to let it go.

I thought about how we’ve made Yule wish balls in the past and filled a pine cone with wishes for the future and things we want to let go of from the prior year. Maybe I could do something similar to take the first step to free myself from the rage I have been holding onto.

So, I wrote my letter, which I am not going to share here. It's a private thing, and I do not want to cause harm to people I care about if they happened upon this post and read my private thoughts and feelings. There could be no good from making those public. I folded the letter into a small paper packet fill the folds and spaces with dried herbs and flowers. I made the packet heart shaped because it's my heart that I want to lighten with the practice. I want to think of my mother and her passing and be able to dwell on more love and less anger. I placed it on a bed of sand and dried orange peel, circled it with salt, and burned it til all the words were gone.

I think I will mix the sand and ashes into some soil and plant something pretty that I can watch grow. My mother would have liked that part, and I want to turn the energy that I've been putting into holding onto negativity and use it for something positive and growing and green.

Mixing Up Magic in the Kitchen - Holiday Edition

What recipes do you always make around the holidays? My family always made a few every year. They were a ritual. There were so many things attached to each food. Memories of childhood. Memories of family members who were no longer with us. The ritual of mixing and stirring and seasoning that seems so magical when it all comes out just as you planned. I will share a few of my favorites here.

I remember some about my Great Grandmother Smith before dementia began to ravage her, but not a lot. From the stories that my grandfather and grandmother told, she liked cooking, but it wasn't really her strong suit. There were a few dishes though that everyone loved, especially my grandfather, so we made them each year for the holidays. It was a way us to help him remember her and honor her.

Photo from Recipes.net

Old Fashioned Potato Candy

 

1 large white potato (peeled and boiled)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

6-7 cups of powdered sugar

Smooth peanut butter of your choice

1 Tablespoon of water or milk

Food coloring (optional)

 

Peel and boil 1 large white potato until tender. Mash potato until smooth of lumps. Add vanilla extract and stir into potato. Add the tablespoon of water or milk if extra liquid is needed to smooth the mixture. If you would like to make your dough different colors, add in your food coloring now. Sometimes my great grandmother would split the batch into three parts and do red, green, and white for the holiday. We most often skipped the food coloring part.

 

Begin adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you are able to create a dough similar to a sugar cookie dough.

 

Roll out dough using extra powdered sugar to dust surface to prevent sticking. You want the finished dough to be about 1/8 inch thick when you are done rolling.

 

Spread peanut butter over the top surface of the dough. We always used smooth peanut butter because it was my family’s overall preference, but I suppose you could use crunchy as well for added texture.

 

Starting at one of the long sides, tightly roll up dough, like a jelly roll. Wrap in parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes to an hour. Until firm. Slice into ¼ inch pieces and serve. Store in the refrigerator.

Winter is Coming

I was thinking to myself that I'd like to be more actively involved in my writing here, both about introspective things and about what I am actively engaging in. Winter is always a busy time because there are so many things that get put off during the summer while we are busy doing outside chores and gardening and generally enjoying the warm weather while it lasts. Winter is full of crafts and sewing and indoor projects that let us stay cozy warm. Also cooking and gathering with friends and gaming. More time to think and read and hibernate a bit too.

I saw the following writing prompt and activity ideas on The Witch of Lupine Hollow blog and thought I would give them a try over the holiday season.

Record in your grimoire family recipes you make each year during the holidays, such as the family gingerbread cookie recipe. This is perfect for kitchen witches who use their grimoires as recipe books as well.

Work with the winter astrological signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces and record information you find about the energies of these signs in your grimoire.

Profile crystals and herbs associated with Yule such as garnet and moss agate, or holly and peppermint.

Journaling Prompt: Reflect on the past year and how you have grown in your spiritual journey during that time.

Record a favorite holiday story or Yule legend, such as A Christmas Carol or the story of the yule log. Then, each year, you will be able to read this story out loud from your grimoire to create a new holiday tradition.

Make plans for the new year in terms of your spiritual journey. What new ideas and techniques do you want to study?

Sketch or trace mandalas into your grimoire and color them in. Coloring may be trendy but it really is deeply meditative and relaxing, and mandalas can be very powerful for centering your energy. The perfect activity for a rainy, winter day!

Press sprigs of holly leaves, pine or cedar in your grimoire to scent the book with the feeling of the season.

Research and record information about gods and goddesses associated with Yule and other winter holidays, such as Saturnalia. You might find a new tradition you feel drawn to.

Write down the steps you take for your Yule and December full moon rituals, so that you can refer back to them in the future.