Mystical Mundane

The Danger of Religious Prayer versus Spiritual Prayer The public prayers of conservative Christians are embarrassing to me, and I find myself uncomfortable sharing with strangers the fact that I am an ordained member of the Christian clergy. I was recently in a situation in which I once again experienced this unsettling, self-conscious feeling..... (click link above to read more)

As long as the internet has been in my life, about 12 years, I have kept an online journal somewhere. I've never really known how to express myself in them, and as a result have had a few different ones. One for my dark rambling self (now evolved into 'spiritually seeking self' ) , one for pagan/wiccan things (but I am no longer Wiccan... pagan is a term that I'm not quite comfortable with either - Earth-Based/Panentheist is more appropriate ) one for family stuff that was mostly only published to people I knew. I even had one of those 'mommy blogs' for awhile but then I realized I didn't want to promote things because if I didn't like it, I would be very honest and that wouldn't be very PR friendly. Also, I am financially restricted, BIG time, so for me to promote something it would have to be cheap AND super awesome. :) I've never just had all of me in one spot.  Ultimately though, that's who I am. All of it. I am a sometimes moody, som...

The Kingdom of God is within You - Luke17:21: Isha Upanishad and the Rabbi called Ysha ha-notsri... : Isha (Yhsha) Upanishad Translated and Commentated by Swami Paramananda From the original Sanskrit Text This volume is reverently dedicat...

Down to Earth: Finding your value at home - Part 1 : Last week I received an email from Joannie who said: "After listening to you on the radio and checking out your blog I then bought your boo...

Today my husband and I went to an EMP gathering. It wasn't a big official event, more just a gathering of Nordholt folk. In the EMP (Empire of Medieval Pursuits) I am Dunlaith ingen Aed - Dunlaith is pronounced Doon-luh and means Brown Princess- My persona is that of an Irish woman from app 800 AD. My husband and children came along today, for the first time and they had a very nice time. Angantyr sparring with Lord and Lady Shewan's youngest. My husband drumming My Husband drumming while all the children spar with Lord Shewan Although it was not a large turnout, it was very nice. The park is a great place to avoid mosquitos out here in the valley. Although the creek is close by I suppose the fact that it is running water and not standing, helps quite a bit. We were there about five hours with not one mosquito bite! Our good friend Mara and her husband stopped in for a bit and she gave me, in exchange for an astrology report I did, a beautifully hand-ma...

Kenmore 158 1660 Manufactured in 1976-1977 I've always been a rather dismal seamstress. I have always preferred hand sewing than arguing with this beast. It helps little that I have no manual, and no idea what I'm doing. The ol' hand n needle method is far less complicated but does indeed take far more time. So, after a bit of searching online for some bobbin info (my husband took out the whole casing trying to get the bobbin out, rather than just popping it out with it's little level) and getting everything back in, I realized that I was actually interested in figuring it out. See, my husband had a little sewing project to do. His mother was over and gave him some pointers and he finished his task. I stood off to the side and hissed at the machine. I had fought it and lost before and was not interested in re-engaging battle. However I have an EMP (Empire of Medieval Pursuits) event to attend today and my hand sewing method was taking a long time to complete. ...

Ever since I found the world of blogging through my first platform - LiveJournal - I began a nerdy relationship with online Me.  There are just so many ways to share oneself. After Livejournal, I joined MySpace and then Blogger, then Wordpress, then Webs.com then self-hosted sites... not because I thought I was SO important I required this many online haunts, but because there were just so many different platforms to play with. A new web service is -to me - a blank canvass. Much of my enjoyment comes from the creation and not the maintaining. This is why I enjoy putting together sites for people who are looking for something simple and free (or almost free if they are self-hosting). I moved to exclusively self-hosted wordpress.org a few years ago because I began to worry about all my online content belonging  to a company instead of to me. I also wanted to run a forum ( Spiral Inward ) because there were things I was hoping to learn but was not able to find the sort of venue...

Nature is singing the song of God. The trees are dancing and whispering, The sun is gently subdued by wisps of cloud. Nature the Song, Divinity the Melody, A symphony for the end of day.

In an effort to declutter my internet activity, I'm trying to consolidate and simplify. As a result, I will probably be using this blog more often again. I do love the self-hosting of wordpress, but if I can frugally save a few dollars and more easily and effortlessly keep up to date with what is going on with the bloggers I follow, then it makes sense to do so. I deleted my FB account not too long ago. I was tired of it. I would rather keep up with people by actually finding their blogs and/or emailing them if they live to far away for visiting and phone calls. FB is like the Fast Food of friendships and I'm just done with it.

Beauty hiding everywhere. In plain sight.