I’m going to try to do something regularly, because I want to get in the habit of posting more regularly. Perhaps themes for a couple of days a week will help me get to that goal. So, let’s talk about things that make you happy this Friday.
A couple of music items are making me do a little bit of seat dancing here at work. I have a very…challenging…office mate, so I’ve dug out the little-used iPod, bought a new pair of behind-the-head earphones, and have been using them whenever she deigns to make an appearance. Oddly enough, this hasn’t exactly discouraged her from talking at me for 45 minutes straight.
I’d started with the two new-to-me albums from Kellianna today. I love this woman’s songs. They’re definitely more on the folk end of things, but her gorgeously strong voice, unadorned, naked and just so damn real takes my breath away. A little too much actually – there’s something very sacred to these songs, and I feel like they’re better served by enjoying and singing along with them at home, rather than using them do just drown out the annoying bits I can’t avoid.
Enter Taylor Swift. Refreshingly upbeat, with a country flavor but definitely of the new country variety, I’m enjoying both her albums. I am impressed by her talent, would kill for her hair (I always wanted hair like that), and find that it’s a good listen while here in the office. The fact that it would horrify said officemate is merely a bonus.
I have to say that I’d really rather prefer to be reading one of the books I found last night. I say “found”, but really it was a random box that I’d piled a bunch of newly arrived books into and promptly forgot about. It’s like going shopping in the giant disaster that’s my living room, but without spending any money! I love that.
Anyway, the book is Cottage Witchery: Natural Magick for Hearth and Home
Cottage Witchery: Natural Matick for Hearth and Home, by Ellen Dugan. I’ve read and really enjoyed one of Ms. Dugan’s other books in the past (Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up
), and when I saw this fairly new book I knew I wanted to get it too.
I am…an indifferent housekeeper. I’m pretty much indifferent to the asthetic in my overall surroundings. I haven’t hung anything on a wall that wasn’t a moth catcher or a calendar in over ten years. I think this is likely a legacy of years of living in rental homes as a kid, and trying to avoid causing any problems that would result in a diminshed damage deposit. I’m still a renter, and well, I think I haven’t quite gotten out of that mentality.
It’s time for a change though. Whether I stay at the place I’m in now, or find a new one, I think it’ll be time to start making my living space a better one. And I’d really like to begin incorporating more symbolism, more thought, more …just more ME into the space I inhabit. I think this book will be a good tool to start thinking about how I can make my space truly mine, be it rented or permanent or whatever.
Dugan’s got a very readable style – most of what she relates is what worked for her, interspersed with some information about the how and why of the symbols she’s using. I would personally encourage a bit more research into the historical accuracy of some of the commonly accepted associations and “facts”, and adapt as needed to your own frame of reference and belief system.
I’m only about 30 pages in but look forward to finishing the book this weekend, and perhaps putting some of what I learn into practice as I survey the wreckage of my home and start thinking of doing some very very deep spring cleaning.
So there you go. Happy thoughts on a Friday soon-to-be-afternoon. I hope there’s something in your realms that’s providing some good vibes and happy thoughts as the weekend rolls around!
