Solitary: A Self-Directed Spiritual Life
Let's talk. Come sit with me under a tree or by a lake while we chat about being alone in our practice and our beliefs. Solitary practitioners choose this path for many reasons and have a unique perspective. As a solitary witch, I want to share how I keep true to my beliefs and practices whether I'm working on my own, in a small group or attending a large group gathering. Author of Moon Affirmations, meditations based on the phase of the moon.
Spring?
Spring is supposed to be about cavorting and frolicking through the new grass and flowers. Except in my world, spring is about work. It’s about being done with the fallow times of winter and moving forward with all the projects.
Growing up on a farm, spring was spent walking through the fields, picking rocks, preparing the land for planting. Now as an adult and no longer living on the farm, I find myself missing the distinctiveness of spring.
Winter is about looking within myself, looking at where I am, reflecting on what I’m doing, what I need to change, and who I am. Spring is about taking those first steps into the new me– whatever that entails.
Like the new grass sprouting or the new spring flowers, I start my tentative steps into the new projects or renewing the old projects. Spring cleaning isn’t just about making my home cleaner, fresher. It’s about making me cleaner and fresher. It’s about letting go of the worries of winter – no I don’t have the worries of food running short or fuel running out. I spend time in reflection though and it’s time for me to let go of all the things I need to and moving forward with a fresh – spring like – perspective.
With physical limitations, one of the frustrating things I cope with is not being able to do all the things I want to do. Before the limitations, I could clean a room in a couple of hours. A deep clean would take me a morning. Now with these limitations, I take days and days to do the same work. I have to take it easy, ask for help, and keep my enthusiasm for the project going over weeks instead of hours.
Cleaning is one of my least favorite things to do so keeping motivation going over multiple days / weeks is hard for me. But it’s spring. My craft room has been a mess and it’s hard to store anything and know where it is. I finally took the steps though. I let go of my resentment of having to rely on other people. I got my husband involved. We worked on the closet which was the problem. One organizer and three custom shelves later, the tools are there. I’ve got 80% of the room done. I need one more (hopefully) day to finish up the organizing.
This is my craft room but it is also our overflow storage – suitcases, extra house supplies. It is also where I store my pagan supplies which have been in a couple of boxes. As I’m pulling out and organizing my tools, it’s like a renewal of my beliefs. I find homes for each item and it’s comforting to know I can just walk in, get what I need, and go do ritual or meditation. I’ve been making do without because I couldn’t easily get to these things. It’s a breath of fresh (spring like) air.
There are projects in there which will take me longer. I’d like to take an inventory of my yarn and my patterns as well as the pagan articles I have in binders. These will be ongoing and take a lot more time than I have for the organizing step. However, the last bits – putting binders and books on shelves and organizing the last two or three things in the closet – I’m hoping to finish in the next weekend or two. This will be my first steps this spring. This is helping me discard and move forward with the new for this growing season. Of course, I have more rooms I want to tackle but this craft room project is the first step.
Comments
-
Please login first in order for you to submit comments