After we learn, what do we DO?

After the learning, the challenge is to use, incorporate, combine, make something new, at least make something out of your own hands and heart, something personal, perfectly suited to you and your needs, using your own powers of adding, subtracting and incorporating; in short: creating.

Not just making. 

The quote above is by from Woven Thoughts by a weaver called Sara Lamb. I sat down with my morning coffee to read the first blog in my feed today and really paid little attention to the header (sorry Sara, it was early). It struck me as I read how important these words are for our approach to daily spiritual practice and larger acts of witchcraft or power. Study does really not add things to our lives- just to our heads.  The challenge of combining what we now do with what we might do is what brings our acts into the realm of personal and "perfectly suited to our needs".

Hat4. Sara Lamb 

Also, the pictures were gorgeous!

I was surprised then near the end of her post to realize that this post is about the making of woven artworks, NOT acts of spiritual enrichment!

These thoughts on learning new things and always striving to understand them but incorporate experience, once, twice... over and over into your practice and make each act of creation your own; each act of trying again a celebration of the last act really moved me.

They have stayed with me all morning, so I am sharing them with you as a weaver of spirit as well as cloth.

Sara Lamb is the author of the book Woven Treasures: One-of-a-Kind Bags with Folk Weaving Techniques by Interweave Press, and a DVD called Spinning Silk, also by Interweave Press. Her work is beautiful and her words are very inspiring.

The Ritual of My Morning Cup

I took my favorite coffee cup and made rings of black coffee.

I have a real eagerness to get to the coffee part of my morning.  I'll even get up early so that I have an extra half hour to sit and do nothing but cradle the cup in my hands and complete my morning coffee ritual.

I am not even so particular about having the perfect cup- but I AM particular about not cooking, talking or working on anything while I have my coffee.  

I like to go outside and sit. Just sit and look and listen to the birds.

The second part of the background was adding the allover dashes with a brown pencil and a wash of coffee 

all over everywhere but the coffee circles.  Next came the pink paint and a sketch of the coffee cup.  This is not my actual cup, which is a huge deep mug. 

And why not pink steam?

I'm not a big fan of symmetry, but I like balance.
Opposite the cup: Pink framed spoon.
(yellow bleed through from another page will be dealt with!)

I might light a candle or some incense if I can't get outside.  Sometimes there is a little dog who needs to sit and meditate with me.  

The key thing during coffee time is not to plan for the day. No mental packing of paperwork, review of lesson plans or figuring out what to put in the crock pot.

I joke about sitting without a thought in my head sometimes, but it actually takes quite a lot of discipline to just sit in one place for half and hour and be in the moment.  

Meditation is not hard to learn, but frequent practice is the key to getting the most from it.

This journal entry was a part of the Pagan Art Journal Project about using mundane activity as ritual.

It's only shiny and pretty when you're warm.

It started to snow last night, just as I got home. I love snow and if it's gonna be cold and wintry outside, I think we should get snow just to cheer us up and make going outside fun and shiny.

An' it IS cold. Cold cold coldcoldcold. Brrrr "where are my mittens?" cold. Too cold to camp outside in a canvas tent dressed as a colonial camp follower. Since I am pretty tough, it has to be  COLD for me to say that.

You see, I reenact the American Revolution all year long in PA and the surrounding states from early March until Christmas day when Washington crosses the Delaware River.  If at all possible I sleep in a canvas wedge tent and weather is NO object. I'm a little bit tough that way. Rain, I'm in. Cold, hand me that straw and I'll burrow right under it. Snow... snow is like the prize at the bottom of the box! If I have to be cold when I climb out of my straw and get back into my petticoats and stays and cap I delight in seeing snow outside my tent flap! Then I go and break the ice on top of the water in our wash pans and put the pail on to boil over our open fire.  But I digress...

At home, I'm a little bit like that too with the snow. De-lighted. I looked out the window 19 times last night before bed to see if it was sticking- YES! It's been 50 degrees for weeks out there, finally we have a cold front and the snow is staying! (I am alone in my snow glee, sadly. Bearded Bob does not share my joy. We will hear SO much more about the differences in our approach to nature in the future, I promise you. For now I will illustrate our difference this way:  As we sat and enjoyed doggie time last night I said, "AH, snow for walking tomorrow morning." and BB replied, "Yeah, I heard it was snowing outside on Facebook." Then we looked at each other and laughed.)

So, back to last night. The dogs would much rather sleep on the bed than the floor but I hate when they sleep on top of the covers and pin me down. It's like being trapped in a coffin. So, I throw them off the bed about twice each night because apparently they are too dumb to stay home and feed themselves for a weekend but smart enough to tell when I've fallen asleep.

Last night at 2 am I wake up, wake the dogs up and make them get down, then hear a big crash in the wind outside and see a bright flash like lightning. Last time I saw that a tree fell and our backyard caught on fire but this time, nothing visible going on. When I turned around to go back to sleep post dog-scolding I saw that my clock is out. The power is out. I got up, the whole side of our street is out as far as I can see.

We called the power company and reported the outage and they said they had gotten other calls, they were sending a truck full of big guys. Nothing to do but go back to sleep.

3am. Third dog scolding.
3:10 am. Dogs back. Whaat? Oh, they're getting cold. I caved and let them in the bed. I then spent the rest of the night listening to them dream and feeling all eight paws chase rabbits. BB is in heaven. He loves a good dog sandwich.

Zambonie au Vin.

5 am. Still awake. I have decided that this dachshund would fit just perfectly into our crock pot.
6:30 am. Oh happy time! Everyone please jump on and off the bed while BB gets dressed to take you out in the beautiful snow while I try to cop a few minutes of sleep without my arms pinned to my sides. Oh yes, and give me a Licky Facial as soon as you finish your breakfast because I love the smell of dogfood in the morning. Smells like... victory.

Woah! no, it smells like no power! So BB goes off to work happy because there isn't enough to shovel out there because of the wind and I have two FROZEN puppers burrowing back into my covers because I have the only heater in the house inside my body. Get. me. outta. here.

But no. I am working from home all day today. Brilliant. I leave them in the bed warm and I get up because I'm in such a bad mood from no sleep and rabbit chasing and (I feel like I might be ranting a little, can you hear it?) cold dog-food-breath noses and AUUG! no coffee maker. The floor is freezing and did I mention I sleep naked and there are big linemen in bulky snowsuits on every pole at bedroom window level??? Shouting to one another.

Holy crap. Why do I keep putting off buying a robe?

I turn the shower on to drip to prevent pipe freeze, pile all the blankets on the triumphant and gloating sad frozen doggies and go down the (possibly icy) stairs thinking about dramatic thoughts of how I will work hard on something to stay warm today. I take my cold cup of yesterday's coffee over to the thermometer to see just how grave my situation is and it reads 50 degrees! FIFTY. The very number I thought was too warm outside for weeks.

Then I see a shouting bulky lineman walking through my yard toward the other guy on the pole. Red faces, they look really cold. They are at work. I am suddenly very humble in my freezing fifty degree castle with no wind. They have to stay outside where it MUST me more miserable than anything I have ever volunteered to enjoy while camping. I am not tough, we have blankets and straw mattresses and a fire! They have their gloves off and are using tools.

I'm hanging my head. There are people who live on the street, they are outside too. They. are. tough.

I sat right down and drank my cup of leftover cold coffee and began to give thanks. I have a roof. I have a floor. I can't believe it, I complained about how cold the floor was and then I put on warm shoes. I have warm shoes. Coffee in a cup. I didn't even light a candle this morning as I do on so many mornings when I sit and meditate. It just didn't feel right to have even that warmth and light. It felt right all of a sudden to be uncomfortable and thankful. I was thankful for matches and candles though.

I am thankful for cold. And for the fact that I look at snow and think its a shiny, wonderful prize.

...then, the power came on and I heard the coffee maker and heater start. Just as I was sitting there deciding that I would work in the cold house today and keep appreciating my roof and floor and laptop battery. Thank you, Goddess.

Tomorrow, I will light that candle.

The rhythm of the year

Mabon and harvest time bring the wheel of the year around for me. I've never lost that "New school year" feeling and even though early September is still the height of harvesting herbs and yard work season here in overwarm Pennsylvania I feel the urge to go out and buy a backpack and some pencils.
So, while my goal for this season is to shed and simplify by culling things from the former stages of my life- what I appear to be doing instead is making big lists of tasks that are ADDED to the already busy canning, drying and reclaiming the wild backyard tasks.
This is not simplifying. I need a better method, or a timeline. Or a professional planner. Maybe a few pencils.

Lists have taken over my coffee time and caused my photos to be all tilty!