Author, Author!

The email notice I’ve been waiting for arrived this morning. It read “Books can now be ordered via the Print Corner tab in the Project section. Thanks!” That meant only one thing. My book is published!

I tell you there were times I thought I’d never write those four words and have them be speaking truth.

The journey from an idea to where I sit now at the end of the day my first book is published has been a circuitous voyage, full of fits and starts and triumphs and lag time. I’ve learned some things; about myself, about technology, about social media, but mostly about faith.  The liar I was as a child pays off now as a storyteller. Computer programs are only difficult until you learn them.  Social media doesn’t have to invade your privacy.  And faith is mysterious. Because at the center of all the uncertainty that swirls through one’s mind, at the core of all the questioning that shakes one’s soul, in the depths of all the doubt that burdens one’s heart during a creative process, there is a quiet place that hangs onto a vision so loyally that nothing touches it.  I say this like I knew it all along. But I only know this now. When I was throwing in the towel, not only on my book, but on myself as an artist, somehow my faith remained. It had to have. Otherwise I would not be where I am right now, having crossed the threshold from being a writer to being an author.

 

This was taken at least ten years ago. Talk about keeping the faith!

It’s been a whirlwind of communication since the moment I read that happy email: phone calls, voice messages, emails, fb and twitter posts and responses, all of them sweetly congratulatory. 

In between I walked in my garden, thanking Mother Earth for all my good fortune. The neighbors' cat came to meet me. She stretched and purred as I scratched behind her ears, both of us getting our fill of kitty and human love in the afternoon sunshine. A very satisfying day all around.

The telephone called me inside. I have a standing date with my mother every Wednesday. I blurted my good news right away and she made me howl with laughter when, after expressing her happiness and pride, she said, “Who would of thought the little baby who used to sit in that cardboard box would end up publishing a book?”

 I guess I am part cat after all. Purrrrrrrr.

This Little Light of Mine

Winter is in. If I didn’t know it by the dropping temperatures and holiday trappings everywhere, I was sure of it when I checked email the other day and found this:

What Holiday Is That?

T’was the month before Christmas, when all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying nor taking a stand.

See the PC Police had taken away
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ' Holiday'.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-Pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!


Please, all Christians join together and wish everyone you meet
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christ is The Reason' for the Christ-mas Season!



Wow.



I am not a Christian, so the call to action at the end of this poorly written rhyme is not intended for me. But in addition to making the mental correction that Mother Nature is the reason for the season, it made me wonder. Is our faith really taken away if we don’t hear it spoken about or exalted in public? Is our spirit so uneasy that it must trump all others in order to feel secure? I thought faith resides in our hearts and souls. And why does being inclusive and sensitive and honoring diversity intimidating?

Lest we forget, “Yule” means Wheel, and refers to the Wheel of the Year, a Pagan model for the passing of time. That tree hanging upside down at Target derives from an old Pagan practice of associative magick: the evergreen brought into the home at midwinter is a metaphor for life surviving through the fallow season. Amulets for protection to ward off illness and hunger were hung on this tree, much later becoming Christmas ornaments. The trees' branches would be used to keep the home fires burning through the long, dark coldness, its trunk becoming the Yule Log to start next year's midwinter fire. Why, even the wreath on the door was a representation of the Wheel of the Year, the portal through which all life enters into the world. In my faith, the story goes that at the Solstice, the Great Cosmic Mother gives birth to the sun. We can easily see how that story morphed into Mother Mary giving birth to Her son.

But I don’t expect that school children everywhere, no matter what faith they were raised in, to sing about it. And it doesn’t take one tiny bit away from my faith that everyone doesn’t walk the same path as I do. I love that the Solstice and Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa are all celebrated close to one another in time (by the way, Ramadan is observed in the Summer!) because at the foundation of all of them is the celebration of the returning light!

Perhaps allowing this little light of mine to shine is the best way to observe Christmas. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t it Jesus who said love thy enemies as thyself?

It's a calling.

This is not the first lifetime I have spent as clergy. I am certain I have been a High Priestess before, and a Priest, a Monk, a Hermit, and a Nun. I am certain I have built churches, cleaned mosques, presided at the temple, kept the grove. I am certain I have dedicated my life, my body, my voice, my soul to that unnameable force we have for centuries called by names now laden with connotation and import; Goddess, God, Spirit, Creator, the One. I am certain I have jumped through hoops and endured ordeals and served and slaved and gone insane and been sacrificed, all for the depth of my faith and the belief in the evolution of the soul from lifetime to lifetime. And this one is no exception. Although I am relieved to know there are no blazing stakes or nooses in my future and so far, I believe, I have kept my sanity intact. I am certain this is not the first life I have experienced the joy and deep contentment that true faith promises. And I am also certain that this is the life in which it has been the most fun!

This time, I am doing it under my own auspices. I answer to my calling. And perhaps non profit laws and state tax regulations but those are the nuts and bolts of business, not the essence and nature of faith. I serve Her. The Divine Feminine so desperately needed in the forefront of our consciousness and the strength of our hearts in these times. The compassionate and nurturing Great Mother whom we have so long abandoned but thankfully, She Who Did Not Return That Favor.

I simply took all that I loved to do and cared about and sought ways to manifest them. And in one inspired moment, on the heels of securing a beautiful office I knew was my sacred space, I chose to offer my first Goddess Worship Service. That was close to ten years ago and during the ensuing years, my ministry has watered not only the once dry plains of my soul, it has cultivated a thriving spiritual community, it has developed and supported a great understanding and reclaiming of the Ancient Goddess, She Whom We Had Forgotten For So Long.

I am certain that all those other lives in the clergy have led me to this one. I am certain that persecution for one's faith in past lives makes one bold enough to forge their own faith in the next one. After all, once you loose your life what more do you have to loose? I am certain that experience in obedience and penance and scarcity in past lives makes one brave enough to refuse that monotony and pain in this one. I am certain that the Fates have spun the thread of freedom for me this time around. I am so grateful..

Join me in Gaia's Temple and let's take good spiritual care of the Earth together.