Okay, so it is the day after Christmas, a day that most Pagans and Wiccans don''t even celebrate, and I am getting bombarded on email and Facebook with gripes from people disappointed in how their day went.
Talk about the "spirit of the season"! I haven''t complained about my holidays, although I mostly spent them alone except for very good friends who showered me with their love and care. Thank you, wonderful friends! I am currently estranged from my family by my choice, as I am in self-protection mode and I am no longer allowing their various dysfunctions to affect ME. Eleanor Roosevelt said: "People can only take advantage of you with your permission", and I am no longer giving permission quite so willingly!
So here are my questions to you: Are you alive? Be grateful.
Did you get something to eat yesterday? Be grateful.
Did you have clothes to wear? Shelter? Be grateful.
Here is a spell to contemplate:
Spell of Gratitude
12-26-09
Color of the day: Blue
Incense of the day: Pine
Gratitude is one of the most profound emotions we can feel. To be grateful is to feel content and to acknowledge the things in your life that you truly and fully appreciate. So often, we go through life forgetting to say "thanks" to life itself. We often focus on the negative and forget to count our blessings. Gratitude is essential on any spiritual path—including the path of life itself!
Today is the day after Christmas (which is, for Witches, a holiday about family, friends, and love, rather than a celebration of Christian mythology), and is shortly after Yule, the Winter Solstice, which celebrates the rebirth of the Sun rather than the "birth of the son" (same mythos, different skin).
Because this time of year represents rebirth, renewal, gift-giving, and love, it''s a perfect day to give thanks to the universe. Take a walk in nature by yourself, smelling the natural smells, feeling the Earth and the trees, and seriously paying attention to the profundity of the natural world. Give an offering of food or incense, and say your own prayer of gratitude to the spirits and the gods.
BTW--the spells that I post come from a Yahoo Group called "Lillah''s Northeast Pagans". You should join it!
