March: Celtic Heritage Month!?

Yes, I admit it is a very unofficial designation but I really do feel March should be made Celtic Heritage Month. After all, March 1 is St. David's Day, the patron saint of Wales and of course March 17 commemorates St. Patrick and has come to stand for all things Irish--especially wild parties with lots of booze! I guess at one time that appealed to me to a slight degree but I've never been much for drinking, to say nothing of drunkenness! Actually my system does not handle alcohol well. I tend to get barfing sick before I even get a good buzz, so over the years I have learned my limits. But that is quite peripheral to the point of my post.

The world at large owes a great deal to the Celtic people. Certainly the English speaking parts of it gained a very substantial infusion of Celtic blood and culture from the diaspora of the Scots and Irish at various points by the English overlords who enacted a similar pattern of taking over their lands to what was sadly done by the European settlers to the Native American people a few decades or centuries later. There actually were Scots and Irish youth and even children placed into slavery, a fact not widely known or publicized. No, not indentured servitude by which many bought passage to the Americas but actual for-life slavery! Once in the new world they had an advantage in being able to run away and blend in more easily than the people from Africa along side whom they often worked. But otherwise the circumstances were not too different. It was a shameful situation in all cases. Slavery is just flat wrong, but I do tend to bristle if someone of African ancestry says something like "Your great granddaddy enslaved mine." I say not only no but heck no!!! They probably labored side by side!

So anyway, in both terrible and some excellent conditions and by a wide variety of means, Celts came to spread across the world, bringing their vivid imaginations, their music, their dances, their love for and skill in word-play and many other traits that we hardly realize are theirs today. So why should we not recognize this contribution and honor it the same as we do for several other racial and ethnic groups? February has come to be known as Black History Month and I think that is great but I kind of want equal time! Yes, much of my ancestry is Irish and Welsh with a bit of Scots and a few traces of German and French in the mix but mostly Celtic! I'm proud and glad that is so.

I am more than happy to wear green and the plaids of the clans most associated with my late husband's Scots ancestors--the Macdairmids or McDermott in the modern usage, who were a sept or sub-clan of the Campbells. The Morgans (my maiden name) were also associated with a Scots clan; that one escapes my memory right now. I'll happily make a leaky pasty for St. David's Day and later enjoy corned beef and cabbage--which is not really a traditional Irish dish but more adopted in relatively recent times by Irish immigrants mostly. Perhaps instead a boxty or shephed's pie or... Shoot, it is all good!! (Maybe I will pass on the haggis though!)

By the way, a leaky pasty is not one with a holey crust or a bad crimp around the edges but one that is made with leaks, an onion-relative plant native to and one plant badge of Wales as the shamrock and the thistle are for Scotland and Ireland! Pasties are traditional meat pies made all over the Celtic regions and also knows as bridies in some areas. Since Bride is another name for St. Brigid or the older goddess Brighid, I suspect there is some connection.  I need to research that! And no, it is not Bride as in Bride and Groom! The d is nearly silent or sometimes sounds almost like a z.

Many insist pasties should be only made with steak and kidney but in older times they were made from any kind of available meat to include fish and may or may not have potatoes but are usually flavored with leak or onion, may use turnips instead of potato or simply have meat filling. Also the traditional shape is a half moon where the single round crust is folded in half and crimped at the edge with the filling inside!

Anyway this month I am going to devote several posts to all things Celtic so please come along and enjoy the celebration! I'll speak about myth, music, recipes, odd bits of lore and whatever fun stuff I can collect to share. Druids of course come from the Celtic culture of long ago and that is another subject near and dear to me. The myth and spirituality of the Celts is a whole different world!

I remember Lewis Carroll's Alice said that books without pictures are of no use or interest and I do not have a likely graphic to insert here but will try to liven up future posts this month with some illustrations!

Eighty Three and Counting--Random Thoughts

This blog won't be a year old until April 10, 2013. By then I  hope to pass the big century mark of 100 posts. So far it has been fun and I hope my readers have enjoyed the travels too. BTW, I'm still waiting for that "change" but sense things starting to shift and stir. Perhaps I will live to see it LOL.

Midday today that huge chunk of space rock zipped past us. My first thought was the meteorite that caused havoc over Russia was a piece of it that had broken off but I suppose the scientists are saying otherwise. At any rate we dodged that bullet but there are a lot more out there. Some have impacted in the past and surely others will in the future. But I am not worried about it!

Above is not my photo but a neat one of four planets visible at sunset! I have a bunch of fair to middling astro shots I've taken but need to scan them into the computer before I can share. That is a project for this year as soon as I decide on and acquire a mid-level photo scanner that will do all media and formats since I have a variety of slides, negatives, transparencies and prints  to digitize.

"Space junk" both natural and man-made is actually pretty fascinating. I got interested in space and man's efforts to enter it  when first Russia and then the US launched their first satellites back in the late 1950s. For awhile Sputnik and Telestar were big news but then they became ordinary. Still though, my late husband and I spent many summer nights in California and later in Arizona sprawled on a tarp in the yard watching the sky and counting satellites that passed overhead. From deep dusk until about ten on summer evenings they would be illuminated by the sun enough to watch them cross a good part of the sky. I do not recall the greatest number we ever spotted but it was probably around twenty. And we saw some meteors, too. There was a spectacular blue-green one just after dusk that we spotted in California (we lived just south of Marysville at the time) and a rather fiery looking one we saw in Arizona. And many other less spectacular sightings over those years from about 1978 until 2003.

One evening in about 1995 or so when I was returning from a VFW Auxiliary meeting with another member I'd given a ride to, we saw a flamboyant flaring object moving from west to east at an angle across the valley. It came over the top of the Whetstone Mountains and crossed the whole valley. My first thought was to identify it as an airliner that had caught fire and was going to crash but apparently it was a lot higher than that. Now, although I never knew for sure and there was no news report about it, I think it must have been some man-made space debris that burned on reentry. Had it been a meteor that low and hot, we'd have had a catastrophe similar to today's in Russia.

I think people miss so much because they spend most evenings indoors glued to the TV or perhaps their computers. Of course if you live in a city or even a large town, there is so much light pollution that the sky is washed out until only the moon and a few of the brightest stars and planets can be seen. But even in town if you have a walled or fenced yard to block out the local streetlights, the neighbor's floodlights etc. you can see a surprising lot! I'm thinking here of making a V-shaped enclosure facing to the southeast to cut off the worst of the bright local lights and setting up my big 8" Celestron scope this summer. Alamogordo is somewhat sensitive to light issues and does use red-glowing streetlights that reflect down and do not impinge on the observatory facilities in the Sacramento Mountains to the east here. I appreciate that! Actually except for the motion activated spotlights in a neighbor's yard, it is not too bad here. More on this later this year if and when.

I'd have to relearn that scope though as I have only had it set up once or twice since two nights before Jim's death when we watched an eclipse of the moon. For quite awhile I just could not get interested in using it again. But now after nearly ten years, I'd like to! Grief and loss has odd ways and pace to heal in various areas of one's life. In my special Yahoo group, Arizona Ambience, several of us are widows and as others of our group lose spouses we try to give support and remind them that everyone has to handle grief and parting in their unique way and there is no 'normal' or 'typical' nor any reason to aspire to it. I cherish the friends in that group and love the way we all are supportive and caring to each other despite living all around the country and even the world and having many different spiritual beliefs, political slants etc. We just agree to disagree and let the love and sisterhood take care of the rest! Isn't that what friendship is about?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm sitting here on Valentine's Day thinking about love. Now how weird is that?

I've been fascinated by love all my life. As a small child I probably took it for granted. My parents loved me and each other and that was enough. I had little exposure to other children and I went almost everywhere my parents went since they did not believe in baby sitters. I suppose I was both sheltered and restricted. That continued even after I started school and realized there were lots of other 'real people' out there and most of them lived differently than my family. That's about the time I learned to read and discovered the magic of books--a wonderful glimpse into all sorts of worlds which I could only experience on the printed page.

Before long I moved beyond Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys into adult novels and most of them had a love story as part of the plot. Wow and hot diggity dog!  I discovered Romance with a capital R and I was hooked completely. From puberty on, I could not wait to find this wonder for myself. Of course I went through all the normal crushes and puppy love. The only unusual thing was that I wrote poems about it--poems that gradually grew more complex and more angsty as I got older and still did not find what I was looking for. In time of course I did, living through several affairs and finally getting married and almost living happily ever after, about as close as anyone can in the real world. Much of that journey is chronicled in my book Walking Down My Shadows which I called my fictionalized autobiography in verse.

I admit it is way too long and there is way too much repetition and maudlin nonsense and drivel in its pages. Here and there are some verses I am proud, almost humble to call my own. They were powerful and sincere and sometimes stark in their metaphor and vision. Only a few though. In time maybe I will do some drastic editing and republish it. Still,  it is honest and essentially real, an often unflattering self-portrait of one perfectly described by "unwisely but too well." Yet I still believe in love and the old saw that it is better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all. To this very day I own that with all my heart.

And now, as I moved into a more mature phase, I have greatly expanded my vision and understanding of love. It comes in so many shapes, shades and sizes! There is something for everyone, paired or single, even the most solitary of hermits. Love simply IS. It's all around us and shining down with the sun, falling with the rain or snow and even blowing on the wind. It's the vital electromagnetic energy that ties everything into a unit. It's part of us and our connection to the Godhead or the Source or the Universal! We're all swimming in that stream of power. The best we can do is soak it up and reflect it back in a kind of kinship with all. So today I will hug and cuddle my fur kids, reach out through cyberspace to many friends and family members to say I love you in one way or another, and look to the blue sky, feel the sweet warmth of the sun and inhale the clean, dry air and know that I am greatly blessed and surrounded by Love--the one true thing!.

I rarely quote the Bible but there is one psalm that speaks to me, especially in the old metrical rhymed version: "I lift my eyes unto the hills from whence doth come my aid..." Sitting out on the patio a bit ago, my brother observed there are mountains on every side, all around us here. That is good and feels right to us both. I love mountains and they accept me. I do not need to live on top of or closely in the midst of them but if I cannot see any, I feel lost and disoriented. They are my anchor or lodestone.

The first picture is a view SE from the highway between Alamogordo and Las Cruces and the second is directly east of my home, hills looming behind me over which I watch the sun rise many mornings. Oddly they are rather similar to those around Clarkdale, AZ where brother Charlie and I spent much of our early years. No wonder we feel at home here!

So to each and all, go in peace and harmony, go with and in Love and open your being to its presence all around you! Happy Valentine's Day!

HELP!! Save a maligned Service Dog!!

This matter came to my attention through a friend and fellow dog lover. The whole story makes me both sick to my stomach and fighting mad! I have signed the petition although I am not sure what good it will do. Maybe enough public outrage will have some effect.

Maybe the woman in the story raised this dog or works with dogs but her actions reveal nothing but ignorance and stupidity, You do not break up a dog fight by beating an animal, guilty of 'starting' the fight or not! Dogs will fight at times as it is instinctive and natural behavior. You do not get into the middle of it--I know as I made that dumb mistake once myself a few years ago and I too got bitten. But I merely allowed my dog to be quarantined in my fenced yard, provided record of his vaccinations and totally refused to have him declared a vicious dog because he was not!! It seems to me this woman is trying to gain profit and sympathy for her own stupidity and cruelty and that is nothing but big time wrong!!! I say charge her with animal cruelty and let the dog go free!!

Here is the link to the story and the petition. Do what your conscience dictates!

 

http://www.dogheirs.com/dogheirs/posts/2744-disabled-veteran-asks-for-public-support-service-dog-faces-euthanasia-for-biting-woman-who-beat-him-with-metal-pole

 

 

http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AhgIl/znUz/BtnjV

Sweeping Clean, Giving Thanks, Celebrate!

As the sun sets on the first day of February and dusk falls, my thoughts turn to the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc. This is also the holy day of the Goddess Brighid/St. Brigid (most of us believe they are basically one and the same) and celebrations are observed appropriate for this turn of the seasons, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring equinox. Another name for the date in old Irish was Oimelg or Ewe's milk since sheep and cattle began lactating about this time preparing to give birth.

In the more southern climates such as where I live in New Mexico, we may have a little bit more wintery weather but signs of spring will proliferate as February advances. The sun shown brightly all day today and I was fortunate enough to get out twice and walk with my dog, breathe in the gentle air --dry but lacking the sharpness of colder days recently passed--and glory in the flawless blue sky, touched with just a very few delicate air-brushed clouds along the edges now and then. I heard a different bird--I wish I could have identified it but by the time I went for my binoculars it was gone. No buds or new leaves yet but not long now.

Many folks will celebrate Imbolc tonight--some from sunset to sunset tomorrow and some from midnight to midnight. I think I will go with the sunset. It was my turn the past twenty-four hours to tend Brighid's flame and that was a nice way to begin. I've started to work on a traditional Brighid's Cross of copper wire--it is too fine to handle well in individual strands so I am having to twist two together to make something I can work with so it is slow going but I hope to have it done in the next day or two. If it works out I will take a picture!

I have so much to be thankful for right now--being here in a place I love and where my spirit feels at home, having a comfortable and secure home and my dear canine friends here with me and the health I have been blessed with. Another good thing, too. My friend who was so very ill for almost two weeks with an infection that was close to causing organ failure has snapped back miraculously and was released from the hospital yesterday! He has a ways to go yet to be back to good health but he has progressed wonderfully and was so very happy to go back to his home and his two dogs of which he is very fond. Neighbors and friends will be watching out for him and I'm glad of that as well. If need-be, I will go over to Arizona and stay a bit myself; the offer is there if I am needed.

Traditionally this festival time is one of cleaning out the old and worn to make way for the new--and for me this is mostly about mental/emotional clutter and regrets or resentments. Forgiveness is very important and I have come a long way on that. Events in my younger years left some deep scars and wounds and I held a great deal of anger and bitterness for much too long. As I have been working along starting to write memoirs and a kind of family history, I've been able to come to understanding and acceptance and to recognize no one was specifically trying to hurt or damage me! Far from it; they may have been misguided and in some instances not in the best mental state or health, but that was no one's fault. It just happened and there is not one reason why I should still be angry or carry the hurt and burden so out the door it goes! Looking back I see how many friends, mentors, helpers and guardian angels were there for me at every critical point. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart and now can only hope to pay it forward in small ways and give the love and support that I was given, at least in part, to others in need. To be able to do so is a blessing too!

I did write a verse for Imbolc. The She is of course Brighid, although I did not use her name. The poem was inspired and is offered in love and as a hymn of praise and thankfulness for the bounty of Nature and sacred  gifts of life and time.

            Imbolc Dedication

This night our candles burn again

To call the fire, the sun, the light

To quicken earth and all thereon

For soon will come a shorter night.

This day I clean my spirit-house,

Sweep out all weary, outworn things

Then open wide my heart and mind

To all the good and new that springs

From the flowing well and fire,

From the turning wheel of time,

From the goodness of Her care

From the earth in every clime.

Our hands now itch to till and plant,

Spread seeds upon the fertile soil,

Bring forth new life, create new gifts,

A joyous, giving kind of toil.

This hour we ask Her blessing on

All of those whom we hold dear,

On all in need and all in pain--

An end to hunger, hate and fear.

We dedicate our work to Her

Upon this holy, hallowed day—

Take up the forge-fire for our light

To guide us on the Druid way.

                               (c) GMW 2013

Imbolc, Prognostications and Prayers

Imbloc is an ancient festival or holiday. The Celts loved to divide things so they took the four quarters of the year that represent the seasons, critical to those who lived by agriculture and still some hunting and gathering and marked the halfway point between those stations of Father Sun at the solstices and equinoxes. Imbolc is one of those, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Over time Imbolc came to mark the beginning of preparations for spring--tilling, planting, births for livestock, new growth beginning to emerge and so on. An old Celtic tale about the snake emerging from beneath the snow may be the start of what we now know as Ground Hog Day. Imbolc is also a day to commemorate the Goddess/Saint Brigid or Brighid, often called Bride (pronounced Bree or Breed in Gaelic tongues). She was variously the deity presiding over the hearth and home, health and healing, the forge and creative endeavor. Although St Brigid's Day under the Catholic calendar is May 1, most pagans celebrate the night of Feb 1-2 as Her day.

It is celebrated by lighting candles, some spring cleaning, making Brighid's crosses, getting out seeds to plant or starting to break ground for a garden and leaving a piece of fabric out overnight spread on a bush to represent Brighid's Mantle which she blesses in passing. The fabric can then be torn or cut into small squares to carry for protection. This picture is a Brigid's Cross, often made from straw or reeds but I will be attempting one of copper wire since copper can represent fire and was teh main metal of ancient smiths since it melted and worked more easily than many metals and combined with tin etc. for bronze and brass.

There are many other customs as well but those are some main ones. It's a bit of an analog to New Years with an "out with the old and in with the new" mindset.That kind of goes along with my sense of some change coming into my life in the fairly near future. I downloaded a bit of an astrological look ahead for my year in 2013 which read as follows:

2013: Taurus Overview

Taurus

2013 brings the kind of emotional stability and depth you've been craving for years. Now that Saturn has finally moved out of your work and health sector for good, you will feel a great weight lift off your shoulders with the burden of daily demands and never-ending deadlines. Now you can rightly direct your attention to the realm of relationships. Saturn has moved into your opposite constellation (Scorpio) until 2015 and promises to reveal your missing other half both within and without. Your commitments to others will deepen and you will come to realize how much you truly value your loved ones. Never again will you take any of your significant others for granted. Relationships are your end-all-be-all in 2013. Saturn will show you which ones are worth hanging onto and which ones you have outgrown. No longer will you tolerate relationships that only prove to be a dead-end.

The South Node of the Moon brings a series of eclipses in your sign this year, Taurus. That spells great change and letting go of any outworn attachments and stagnation across the board. Change comes hard if ever in the life of a steadfast and loyal bull, but alas this is your year to let go, let go, let go. Your life and your relationships in particular will undergo great transformation from the ground level, up. Be prepared to tear it all down and start from ash. You are about to learn powerful lessons in how resourceful and resilient you can be when you finally relinquish your need to possess and control.

Money is always essential in the life of security-loving Taurus, but in 2013 it will take on even greater significance. You are learning how important it is to cultivate resourcefulness rather than just working yourself to the bone. Trading dollars for hours is no longer a viable working formula for you. You've got to start tapping into your business brain so that your money makes money for you, and you can spend more time doing what you do best: creating beauty for yourself and others. You've more than paid your dues over the past few years, and you're more than ready to free up your time. You've come to learn the hard way that this is in fact your most valuable resource. You can recover most things, but time that is lost is lost forever.

That made me say hmmm along with the number omens and such. So far it is not appearing but something tells me it will. I'm trying to get and be ready! I'm starting to suspect it may be more of an internal change of attitude and spiritual matters than a physical one like a move, a new major project or a new relationship but I am not ruling that out, either. Time no doubt will tell!

And hearkening back to Imbolc, some special prayers may be in order--for guidance into the next phase, thankfulness for blessings received and coming, and a 'good will toward all' outreach and search for peace and safety. I found three versions of an ancient druid prayer that spoke to me. They are subtly different but all similar.  The word gwynvyd translates as 'heaven' but I think of it more in the sense of the Celtic Tir-nan-Og
or the Fiddler's Green of the soldier, the Rainbow Bridge where our furred friends await us etc.
                    1
God (or Godde) impart Thy strength
and in strength the power to suffer;
and to suffer for the truth;
and in the truth, all light;
and in light, gwynvyd*
and in gwynvyd, love;
and in love, Godde;
and in Godde, all greatness.

                   2
Grant, Godde, Thy protection;                                                                
and in protection, reason;                                                        
and in reason, light;                                                                  
and in light, truth;                                                                      
and in truth, justice;
and in justice, love
and in love, the love of Godde;
and in the love of Godde, gwynvyd.

                 3
Grant, O Godde, thy protection;
and in protection, strength;
and in strength, understanding;
and in understanding, knowledge;
and in knowledge the knowledge of justice;
and in the knowledge of justice, the love of it;
and in that love, the love of all existences;
and in the love of all existences, the love of Godde.

I believe the third version speaks the most to me and I will probably use it in any Imbolc rite I may perform next Saturday evening. Each twenty days, I do two twenty four hour shifts as a flame keeper for Brighid and will end one at 6:00 pm on February 1, just in time to continue into an Imbolc commemorations. In that last prayer I find echoes of the Truth, Art and Kinship trinity that centers my particular brand of Druidism. They all reflect the  very Celtic flow of images into one another that makes a prayer or chant move and live.I may feel a verse starting to build here. Maybe next time....

BTW my friend Joe is still hospitalized and now fighting some heart and kidney issues probably triggered by the infection which is better but not cured yet. I continue to pray for his recovery and try to send a short cheery note each day as there is little more I can do for now. Life is a precious but precarious and ephemeral gift! We only 'borrow' it for a time before going back to the spirit realm to perhaps recycle again in a new form. Still Love is forever and always and eternal and I think the very core nature/energy of all things!

Coming Home is always good

I made my trip and got home yesterday evening. Four very enthusiastic dogs greeted me and that is such a lift. I recall from long years ago a Mother Goose rhyme about a lady who was attacked on the road and her skirts cut short. People laughed and mocked her but she kept saying, "I've a little dog at home and he'll know me." That is one thing your little dog is good for, or larger one--they will love you ragged, dirty, dressed up or whatever and that means so much! Rojito and Ginger have stuck close to me and Gin and I had a good walk this morning before I tackled unloading my rocks!

I am still waiting for the change to come. It will; I feel sure of that but the way events unwound did not bring it about at this time. But most of my angst was needless. I should learn by now! With my one friend, I found him where he was not expecting me and slipped up behind while he was talking to someone else and then said, "Hola amgio, como esta?" That translates loosely hello friend, how are you? He spun around and his face lit with a wide grin as he reached out to hug me. I could tell there was nothing faked or forced in that greeting. Then he had a very reasonable explanation for what had hit me wrong--and that was that. We're good. We talked awhile and went our separate ways with a parting hug. I spent the night with a girlfriend and her newish 'boyfriend' (for want of a better term) throwing my sleeping bag on a mattress she had in the living room awaiting a bed to be built by her partner. Then I went on to Arizona the next morning.

I went by my old home and loaded up all my gem and mineral and rock collection, visited with a couple of former neighbors and then went back to Benson which is right on the I-10 freeway where I had a room reserved. Yesterday I made a leisurely way home, mostly watching trains since the track parallels the highway from Benson to east of Deming with just a few zigs and zags. Then the only worry was for Joe since I had not been able to reach him and only talked briefly with his son who had arrived and did answer one call I made--curtly I have to say.  I'd sent text messages and since my notebook computer was not working well, had to wait on emailing.

I did learn that Joe's son and daughter in law had got to Phoenix and were there for him; they were not very pleasant to me, a stranger and he was in isolation because of the infection. It's not quite one of those horrible flesh eating ones but bad. But then late last night I got an email--his phone had been either stolen or maybe the kids took it and was out of service but he still had his tablet and was feeling some better. He hoped to get out of the ICU today and I hope to hear of that soon. Gods willing, there will be other chances to get together and have some fun in the future.


Here are a couple of pictures I took at Stein's Pass which is right on the Arizona-New Mexico border! I saw this stack train pass at Dragoon, a small town between Benson and Willcox in Arizona and followed it all across the route until it finally disappeared on me east of Akela, which is between Deming and Las Cruces! There the main line track heads south to El Paso. Anyway I  knew with the right light that this pass area would yield some great photos and I was not disappointed; even with my fairly low end digital camera, I got two calendar worthy shots!!

So I guess as the saying goes all is well that ends well? I woke this morning for a bit at 2:22 so had to check that number and it also speaks of change: "Have faith. Everything's going to be all right. Don't worry about anything as this situation is resolving itself beautifully for everyone involved." Well, that is reassuring! I'd like to know what and how but took that as an omen that Joe will recover in time. Whatever else I have no clue!

Some very interesting books arrived Saturday after I had left to add to three I got last week from a very dear friend who ordered them for me. She knows I am fascinated by nature and animals and these three are focused on that by a now deceased man who sounds amazing! So life is mostly good and I'm ready to tackle some new challenges and projects as well as work along on some older ones.