Welcome To Chrysalis!
Welcome! Friends, Pagani, and other Readers,Some of the pages here are under various states of rewrite and reconstruction, sorry for the mess! I am editing and reworking a number of them, as well as the constant additions to the Online Pagan Resources, as I work through some major life changes and recommit myself to my spirituality, faith, and Work.
Thank you very much for stopping by!
Peace,
Pax / Geoffrey Stewart
PS- Work progresses on the Pagan Values project...
“Pagan this, Pagan that, Pagan the other…. what about your fabulous boyfriend? Why don’t you blog about him?!” he says…
(as I raise the left eyebrow of mischief)
He is cute and delightful, and thinks he’s funny – sometimes he’s right…. he’s a former Catholic (imho still recovering from it), Witch, Theater Major, working in the Restaurant Management field. He’s a cutie pie with fuzzy arms, sandy blond hair, and is a magnificent kisser!!
just sayin’
Peace,
Pax
So Hecate, (no not Her, the only-slightly-less-awesome blogger of the same name) said some amazingly eloquent and wonderful words about, well, words; and in Honor of the Imbolc poetry slam shared her favorite copy of a particularly special poem.
I’ve shared a couple of favorites in years past, but as I am reminded by Hecate’s words, there is a poem without which I would not be here, either writing as a Witch, or even living.
There was a point in my life where I contemplated ending it, in the deep aftermath of my mothers death I went through a time of depression. I was walking along a busy roadside and thought to myself
“I could just step off of the side-walk and into traffic and it would all be over….”
my very next thought was,
“…Well, I would have to deal with all of this again in my next lifetime… I may as well deal with it now…”
In all likelihood, I would not be alive today if it were not for the fact of my being a Witch. One of the things that drew me to Witchcraft was the eloquence and beauty and power, that core feeling of rightness and an internal “Yes!” in response to a particular piece of invocational poetry. So I owe my life, in part, to the same poem that Hecate lovingly referenced in her post, I love that poem too.
I too have a version I cherish and use myself, so inspired by Hecate, and with the deepest and most profound thanks to Doreen and the Lady for penning it; here is that version…
Charge of the Goddess
By Doreen Valiente
“Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who of Old was known amongst men as Artemis, Astarte, Athena, Isis, Cerridwen, Diana, Melusine, Brigid, Kwan-yin, Bast, and by many other names.”
“Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the Moon is full, then shall you assemble in some sacred place and there adore the spirit of me, who is Queen of all Witcheries. There shall you assemble, and you who would learn all Magic, yet have not gained its deepest secrets, there will I teach you things yet unknown. You shall be free from Slavery; and in token that you are truly free you shall be naked in your rites.
Sing! Feast! Dance! Make music and Love all in my praise and presence. For mine is the Spirit of Ecstasy, and mine as well is joy on Earth, and Love Unto All Beings in My Law.
Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let nothing stop you or turn you aside.
For mine is the Secret Door that opens upon Youth; Mine is the Cup of the Wine of Life, that is the Cauldron of Cerridwen, that is the Holy Grail of Immortality. I am the Gracious Goddess who gives the Gift of Joy unto the Heart of humanity. Upon Earth, I give knowledge of the Spirit Eternal and beyond death; I give peace, freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand Sacrifice; for behold, I am the Mother of all things, and my love is poured forth across the worlds.”
“Now hear the words of the Star Goddess, the Dust of whose heels is the Host of Heaven and whose body encircles the Universe”
“I who am the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon among the stars, and the Mysteries of the Waters, and the Desire in all hearts, call unto your soul. Arise and come unto Me! For I am the Soul of Nature, who gives life to the Universe. From me all things proceed and unto me all things return; and before my face, beloved of Gods and Mortals, let your innermost self be enfolded in the ecstasy of the Divine!
Let my Worship be within the Heart that rejoices, for behold, All Acts of Love and Pleasure Are My Rituals.
Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you. And you who think to seek me out, know that all your seeking and yearning shall be to no avail unless you shall know the mystery; that If That Which You Seek You Do Not Find Within, You Shall Surely Never Find It Without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of all desire.”
~compiled from various published versions, and with a few touches by Pax
As noted this is my version of The Charge, for the original text go here!
Peace, Poetry, and Blessings,
Pax
As the annual Brighid Poetry Slam messages out there have probably already high-lighted for us, Imbolc-tide is upon us once more. Depending on your individual faith or path as a Pagan, Imbolc or Oimelc can mean many different things. Those meanings also change depending on matters of where you live and whether you celebrate as a Solitary Pagan or in a Group, and whether your Faith or Path even observes Imbolc or if it’s one of those Holidays that you sometimes go out to a community event for, simply for the Pagan fellowship, or to humor a friend; but for me it has come to be The Festival of Rekindling…
Growing up, and becoming a Witch, in Anchorage,Alaska early February was that time of year where you really started to see and appreciate the returning of the daylight. In late February/Early March you also had the excitement of the approaching Fur Rendezvous, an annual Winter Carnival held in Anchorage. So for the longest time Imbolc was a celebration of the returning light and of the first stirrings of the return of light and life and activity after the mad rush of celebrating the Beloved Living at Yule.
The last few years, though, I have had trouble figuring out what Imboc means to me.
Living in Florida the returning of the light is much less a dramatic or sought after turning of the Wheel, and it’s kind of difficult to get into its associations as celebrating the first signs/stirrings of spring when the citrus harvest is finishing up and the Strawberry harvest is on its way… part of my ongoing journey as I seek to truly understand this strange new sub-tropical world of mine.
Imbolc meaning “In the Belly”; Oimelc meaning “ewe’s milk. Birth, beginnings, creativity, and renewal… those begin to feel closer to the truth of this Sabbat for me. Though I don’t have much, except that of a 1/4 Irish lineage, of a relationship with Brigid whose festival Imbolc is widely honored as, She is the Goddess of Sacred Fires and Sacred Springs. Smithcraft, Arts and Crafts, Poetry, Spirituality, and Healing, Nurturing, Hearthcraft.
These feel, in that deep part of my soul that is touched by the sacred, like the right track…
So before I went to bed this morning (one of the many hazards of an overnight job…) I turned off the computer and the phone, I lit a stick of incense and before I blew out the flame used that stick to light a candle. I sat holding the candle-glass cupped gently in my hands and meditated a bit. I sought, not silence really, but clarity. I let my mind wander over the last few days…
I thought about the New member’s potluck at First Unitarian, how enjoyable it was even though I am clumsy at best at social mixers with large groups of people. I thought about meeting my sponsor/mentor Mary and talking with here about things around church. My mind turned to the words of the Chalice lighting we use at our U.U. Church…
“In the Light of Truth,
In the Warmth of Love,
We gather to seek, to sustain, and to share.”
(and for those of you who are thinking “isn’t the Chalice a tool of water?!” Yes, it is, but there’s more than one way to wield a symbol and a tool! Here is a link about the Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist flaming Chalice)
My mind also thought about how very, very much I enjoyed cooking my variation of Mom’s Classic Greenbeans (a Stewart family Holiday classic!) for the Potluck; and how eager I was to volunteer to help my mentor Mary by volunteering to put together a Jambalaya for the New Orleans themed coffee hour…
I really do love to cook and it feels good to be able to use the skills and knowledge of years of work and study, and my recent schooling, in a productive way. I actually see a lot of my future work in Community Building in the Pagan Community as a way to take those experiences and skills and offer them in Service to others… fundraisers and social events of all sorts!
I am really a hearth-Witch at heart I think, not necessarily limited to my own home; more that I am deeply drawn to and my gifts seem to lay in matters of Hearth and Community building.
Thoughts of the Hearth transition my thoughts from my Witchcraft to my Hellenic Polytheism and naturyally bring to mind Hestia. She who IS the Hearth, and the Hearth Fire, the Sacred light giving, nurturuing, nourishing fire in our homes and lives. Given this long present, but not entirely acknowledged or understood grounding I have in matters of the Hearth, I need to find a way to honor Her especially as I seek to Honor the Theoi Ktesioi, the Gods of the Home, in the coming year on the Noumenia and in my life.
THE THEOI KTESIOI were the gods of house and home. They were led by Zeus protector of the home (Ctesius) and of the family courtyard (Hicesius) along with Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. Hecate and Hermes were also important household gods who protected the gates and entranceways. -from an entry at Theoi.com
Chronologically, my thoughts carried me to the next day and back to thoughts of Witchcraft. Waking up early at 3pm and performing my first, full and formal Witches Circle in…. well, in ages. I remember how wonderful it felt to finally and formally welcome them into my live and works and to share with the Guardians of the Watchtowers in the Blessings of the Lady and Lord. I had not realized how much I missed the immediacy and intimacy of my connection and communion with Them in a full Circle.
Then after Circle there was the mad rush of shopping for and prepping the ingredients for the Jambalaya, then work from 11pm-7am, then rushing home to actually cook the blessed dish, then off to Church to help with the coffee hour and to act as a Greeter.
My thoughts ranged over how much I am enjoying being involved in a community once more, and how eager I am to use my talents, experience, and education in service to that community. Not only First Unitarian, but also the Mystic Grove, which is the Pagan/Heathen Affinity Group at the Church. I am in that tricky stage of getting involved, but trying to not over commit myself or over extend myself… very tough to do for me, and from some of the conversations I’ve had with others at the Church I would guess U.U.’s in general. This congregation, at least, seems to have a lot of that ’somebody should do something about this’ energy that is so familiar to me…
I had to laugh to myself when someone described a Unitarian Universalist congregation like “herding cats”, how many times had I heard that phrase used to describe Pagan community… many!
I also, oddly enough, thought of the new involvement I have with a table-top role-playing group, getting my geek on and making new friends and reveling in the creativity and imagination of this cherished and long neglected hobby….
So for me the Festival of Rekindling is a time renew and recommit to those things that nurture the self and nurture and reconnect us to the wider world. To take pleasure in our creativity, to explore and contemplate our new beginnings or what we might begin as the Wheel turns. To celebrate the return to life and activity after the period of rest after the Winter Holidays.
As I breathed in my meditations by the light of that candle’s flame, focusing ever so slightly on the out-breath, I imagined breathing onto a charcoal or onto kindling, nurturing the fire with my breath to bring it to fullness and life…
Then after some Still and Sillent meditation, I blew out the candle, and welcomed the light of dawn.
“we extinguish the flame,
But not the light of truth,
The warmth of community,
Or the fire of commitment,
These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.”
May your Hearth and Home be blessed,
May you have food and clothing to warm your body,
May you have good friends to share your blessings with to warm your heart and soul,
May you find beauty and inspiration and creativity in your journey,
Blessed be!
And, as always,
Peace,
Pax
So I was going through my Witches Datebook/Organizer the other night and it occurred that I hadn’t heard anything about this years Imbolc Poetry Blogging?!? I was alarmed!
I am also realizing that I should probably read Anne’s Hill’s Blog of Gnosis a little more often…
“Life is hard enough; why shouldn’t we take all the full moon weekend leading up to February 2nd to celebrate this patroness of the arts and healing, and read her a poem or two?” ~ Anne Hill, in 5th Annual Brigid Poetry Festival
This event has been going on for years now, and is one of those deeply cherrished events in the Pagan Blogosphere; I would like to encourage any of you Podcaster’s out there to take up this event as your own with an Bridget or Imbolc Poetry reading in one of your February episodes?
My first Poem is actually a repost of a my prayer for Haiti…
A Witches Prayer for the Haitian People
I Pray to You oh Mighty Mother and Forceful Father
I respectfully call out unto All the Holy Powers of the Universe,
Please bring all of Your Love and Compassion and Blessings to bear,
On the Island and the People of Haiti in this time of pain and suffering,
May the Holy Powers of Air inspire them and help them to communicate with their far flung families,
May the Holy Powers of Fire warm them and bring the healing of bodies,
May the Holy Powers of Water quench their thirst and bring the healing to their hearts,
My the Holy Powers of Earth feed them and lend them strength,
Blessed may You be,
Blessed may they be,
So mote it be.
Peace & Poetry to you and yours, and blessings to Haiti,
Pax
Our journeys should be like wilderness paths where sometimes the walk is fairly easy and sometimes we are walking uphill, or through tough terrain, we must occasionally find ourselves at cross-roads and make a choice of which way to go, we sometimes must acknowledge that this was not the best path and soldier on and sometimes we must back-track and try again, otherwise we are simply standing still.
Hello Dear Friends and Pagani!
So, this last week my dear friend Fey has been writing in her blog and facebook about her recent wrestling matches with some of her own personal demons, those painful memories and terrible experiences that are a part of so many of our lives. On her podcast SpiritsCast she even had a guest host discussing the issue of having personal demons and how one can deal with them.
I have been leaving comments on her blog and facebook sharing some of my own recently learned/encountered lessons about being compassionate with oneself in the spiritual journey and how it is perfectly natural for past issues to come lurking to the surface and that the important think is to keep moving forward on ones spiritual journey and with ones spiritual practice. I applaud her courage in not only facing these painful parts of her past and being ready to acknowledge and wrestle with and accept them as parts of her self, she is truly on the journey towards what T. Thorn Coyle calls Self-Possession. I also must applaud her willingness to be so open with this struggle, but it’s not that surprising given her nature as not only a spiritual practitioner but a teacher.
It is a strange dance we who are on a spiritual journey sometimes end up doing…
There is our work and career life, what we are doing to feed the body and keep it clothed and sheltered and such.
There is also the everyday life, household chores and fun things with friends and hobbies we engage in for fun and to feed our spirits a bit.
Then there is the Work, either discussed as the Great Work of Magic, the journey towards Self-Possession, seeking conversation of ones Holy Guardian Angel, or as the Spiritual Practices and/or Religious Observances that lift and sustain us in our spiritual journey.
The Great Work of Magic (or Magick for those that prefer…) is about a LOT more than mere spells, or even about ritual or magic. It is about work with and deep awareness and acceptance of every aspect of our selves and lives. It is about ethics and attitude and outlook, it is about mind and body and soul, it is as much about our physical and mundane lives as it is the spiritual and magical.
Yet in engaging in the Work as we begin to progress and move forward we will find all of our old issues and all of our history coming back up for us to actually accept them and deal with them, rather than trying to sweep them aside or bury them or run away from them. This is usually the point where we start finding excuses as to why we can’t possibly continue with this set of spiritual practices, we get uncomfortable with some of the emotions and ideas and realizations and memories that may arise.
In discussing meditation and spiritual practice and discomfort and learning, Pema Chodron a Buddhist Nun and Monastary Abbot and Teacher says…
“Generally Speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors — people who have a certain hunger to know what is true– feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messages that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.” – Pema Chodron in the essay This Very Moment is the Perfect Teacher from her book of essays When Things Fall Apart
I know in my own journey there has been a lot of running around playing shadow tag with my self and my past over the years. Yet as I really begin to engage, once more, in my spiritual journey I also find myself finding a lot more of the me I used to be years ago. Happiness and humor and courage and strength and some small measure of hard-won wisdom. I had let a lot of these things lay dormant and dusty like a neglected altar in my soul.
Fey’s recent postings, and my own recent experiences and readings, have high-lighted something that I realize is extraordinarily important to remember, especially for us Contemporary Pagans.
The spiritual journey, and the experience of living our religions and paths, and our experience of spiritual and religious communities, should be many things; welcoming, safe, nurturing, enlivening and invigorating. They should not always, or perhaps never, be entirely comfortable or easy!
Living ones faith or spirituality, truly trying to live up to your values and ideals and principles, really engaging in a committed and ongoing spirituality and spiritual practice should challenge us!
We should occasionally have to accept a wrestling match with our own personal demons. Demons of our pasts, whether of terrible experiences from our pasts or of our own past failings and mistakes; they are there in each of our lives and we must be willing to actually look at and explore and deal with them. There will be times where in living our goals and ideals and principles where we must wrestle with those times where our guiding values conflict with what is going on around us; sometimes the best and truest way of living our values is to do the more difficult thing. Our journeys should be like wilderness paths where sometimes the walk is fairly easy and sometimes we are walking uphill, or through tough terrain, we must occasionally find ourselves at cross-roads and make a choice of which way to go, we sometimes must acknowledge that this was not the best path and soldier on and sometimes we must back-track and try again, otherwise we are simply standing still.
Having said that, I will also say that all of this courage and wrestling must also be balanced with humor and compassion for ourselves! Courage in our spiritual journeys means also having the courage to say “Not Today…” or “I’m not ready yet…” or to ask ourselves “Why am I so NOT wanting to deal with ______ right now?!”.
Some days, despite our deep and purposeful commitment to healthy eating (for example) we want that dark chocolate and a glass of sweet dark red wine. Some days we just do NOT want to go for our daily walk or to the gym. Somedays we are just Not feeling as much like Ritual (or Circle, or Ritual, or Blot, or Church, or what-have-you) as we are in just having some me-time. As long as we can look at these times and honestly say to ourselves that it is because in that exact moment that is what we need…. a little nurturing, a little comfort food, a little rest, or a little time for ourselves to just be, then that too is a very important part of our spiritual journeys!
Peace,
Pax
Dear Friends and Pagani,
Tonight it begins…
I have made to myself a promise to deeply engage my spirituality & spiritual practice, and my religious practices, this year. As I walk many religious roads this is a challenge, but tonight I begin to re-engage with Hekate, and really engage for the first time in a focused Hellenic rite for Her… a couple of days from now I will be engaging in my first formal Noumenia observance…
To start here’s a video to help me get into the mood…
This is the music that I will be listening to after I shower, shave and lay out some nice clothes… from the interesting band Daemonia Nymphe, a Greek band that uses ancient instruments and sticks to largely ancient and Hellenic Pagan themes…(info on their myspace and lastFM pages…)
I will post updates to this post tomorrow a little bit later, with more details.
… a little bit later!
So I started by shaving and cleaning up and changing into some clean, nice clothes. I had set up a candle, an incense stick (lavender) and holder, a length of rope braided into a rough flail, and my Athame, onto an small wooden chest with a purple cloth over it… although I need to get some good saffron yellow cloth since that color is associated with Hekate.
Now the fact that I include my Athame (a ritual dagger from Contemporary Religious Witchcraft) in a ritual to Hekate is going to cause some Hellenic Polytheists some wariness, or sneering condescension from the more fundamentalist minded.
In my researches I have found Daggers and Flails listed as items symbolic or associated with Hekate (I have yet to find any truly evocative Keys, which are also associated with Her) and using my Athame is both practical and symbolic. First off, I just don’t have a huge supply of daggers to chose from and my Athame, in my case an all metal kris-style dagger with a dragon shaped handle is what I have on hand; of course the fact that it is not only symbolic of my will and identity as a Witch helps. One of the most famous Witches and worshipers of Hekate (if not a very good model of healthy relationships or evenness of temper) in ancient literature is Medea; who is also associated with dragons. Then too the Athame is used to draw a Circle, to make boundaries, so it partakes of some of the same limnality that The Night Wandering Maiden does. All of these speak deeply to that core part of the soul that must be engaged for successful religious ritual. So for me, when I am honoring Hekate, this bit of cross-over will work, at least for now… She hasn’t made any objections if She does, or the Lady and Lord do, I will find some other way.
Anyway, I set the altar up, cleaned up while maintaining silence, preparing myself to make an Offering to Her. I lit a candle and listened to the music from the above video. Then while the music was playing I turned off the screen and simply listened for a bit. Once the music stopped I set myself before the altar and raised my arms in the Orens Position, as was done in prayers in the Ancient world; and, reading from a placard I have made I spoke the words of the Orphic Hymn to Hekate and lit the incense in offering to Her. I then read my own invocation/hymn to Her in offering.
I thanked Her for her Guidance and Presence and Blessings in my life as I sought to honor the Theoi and understand and seek the Mysteries. I asked for her guidance in how to approach the upcoming Noumenia and the worship of the Theoi and Spirits.
At this point I had the strong impression that I should get some barley to scatter for the next time I approach any of the Theoi in sacrifice; I also got the sense that She would urge me to wait a while, and study some more of the right practice and of the Gods of the Noumenia, and the Theoi in general, before engaging in that ritual.
I blew out the candle, and simply sat in darkness and silence for a while. I ended my time with Her by simply saying “Thank You.” with my arms in the Orens position once more. Then I left the room by backing out of it to give Her some privacy to enjoy the incense offered unto Her.
—
I will be reading more of my just recently received copy of Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored and Greek Religion, and doing some more study online. I will also be lighting a stick of incense in memory and honor of the Theoi on the Noumenia rather than the more formal observance I had been contemplating.
That’s all on the topic for now,
Peace,
Pax
So I took an online Spiritual/Religious Belief System Selector Quiz over at selectsmart.com…. partly on a whim and partly out of a curiosity as to where Paganism and UU would fall in the standings… and interested to find out what else might show up…
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1. | Neo-Pagan (100%) Books, etc. Information link |
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2. | Unitarian Universalism (97%) Books, etc. Information link |
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3. | New Age (92%) Books, etc. Information link |
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4. | Liberal Quakers – Religious Society of Friends (87%) Books, etc. Information link |
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5. | Mahayana Buddhism (79%) Books, etc. Information link |
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6. | Mainline – Liberal Christian Protestants (74%) Books, etc. Information link |
Interesting, these results, and a little surprising on the mainline Liberal Christian Protestant listing… There were actually a lot more listings, but these were the top ones…
So a friend recently sent me an e-mail detailing her wrestles with Depression and the hectic nature of her life recently… I responded thusly…
It sounds like you’ve been facing some cross-roads moments of your own this last year. I know that territory well myself, as you know I’ve had some this year myself. You mention meditation and exercise. I am diving into sitting practice myself and can recommend the book Kissing the Limitless by T. Thorn Coyle. There are a lot of excercises and meditations and journaling type excercises related to integrating the many aspects of the self that I know I have found deeply valuable as I have begun to wrestle with my own difficult and turbulent emotions in the last few months.
A lot of wisdom in there, that and When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron have both been helpful to me.
Embrace the stillness and silence to be found in mindfulness and meditation, I say this as one who is struggling to follow that exact advice, but NOW I know that the reason they are called spiritual practices is because we have to return to them again and again, open to ourselves and to the vagaries of daily life and sometimes we can settle into stillness and sometimes our hearts and minds are determined to flit around like hummingbirds. Yet return we must, lovingly to ourselves and to our practices, again and again.
Hold fast to your friends and family, I say this as someone who lost touch with a lot of his loved ones after the big move down; and who, for whatever reasons, has not always been as good at keeping in touch with our making new friends. You are a dear friend, and I will never forget your loving care in the aftermath of my break up with Gene. Or that green ink marker and the kindness you shared. Our friends and loved ones are the other mirrors of our contemplation in life, hold fast to them.
At the same time, I would say do not fear solitude; provided you have some clear boundaries between solitude and lonliness. Solitude can strengthen us but loneliness only leads to unclear thought and wrong action either towards ourselves or others.
Know that you are loved, and that there are many folks who are more than ready to share their friendship and loving kindness with you.
…I have often been, and tried to be, a good and compassionate and loving friend. I would like to think there have been a number of times over the years where I have been able to be a good advisor and source of moral support and loving kindness.
“For Mine is the spirit of ecstasy,
and mine as well is joy on earth,
and love unto all beings is my law.”
How is it that it is only in the last few months that I have been able to turn that same Love, which I have so often been willing to shine onto others, inward? Why did I hold back from approaching my own life, and work, and spiritual practice and Work, with that same compassion and love? I mean the Holy Powers know I have talked a good game over the years, about self-esteem and spiritual self-love and such, but it feels as if only recently is it really sinking in.
Some of this comes, I think, from approaching my spiritual practice with discipline. I have been writing and keeping a Practice Contract, as outlined in Thorn’s book, with myself. (He dives to his paper journal)
Practice Contract 12-25-09 thru 01-25-10
I Geoffrey David Stewart, known as Pax, known as *****, hereby swear and affirm, by all I hold sacred and fine.
- Each day upon awakening for the day I shall pray my daily prayer and Center and Ground.
- Once each day I will breathe into each of my Chakras and perform the Cleansing Life Force exercise.
- At least once each day I will spend some time in meditation.
- Each day I will engage in some physical activity for exercise.
So mote it be, Blessed Be,
Geoffrey D. Stewart
Now I was a little ambitious and added 2 things, instead of just one, for this, my third practice contract in the three months or so that I have been trying to really actively engage my practice and growth and to do the Great Work. I have been a little slack on the excercise portion of things, but then again it’s been an especially crazy time at work…
In the past I would have wallowed in a sense of defeat in not getting that excercise portion of things, I would have worried and criticized myself for not doing practice A at time B or for not doing such-and-such by the book or in the same exact way I had done it before. I would have allowed myself to give up on the whole practice and wandered down the outmoded but deeply worn paths of my old selfs self-loathing and insecurity. No more!!
Now, I simply sigh and smile and remind myself that I can return to my practice tomorrow, and if I do not get to everything today, that I can always start fresh again the next day. As that great spiritual guru Scarlet O’hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.”
