Finally...

... I have started making preparations for Yule. Sadly there will be only myeslf and the cats yet again this year, but I am hoping that I will still be able to have some fun and make the occasion special.

I have finished drying the orange slices and I am going to see about getting some seasonal greenery for the cottage soon... I would like some holly and ivy and also a small festive tree. I had a lovely one last year that I was given by someone in the village as a thank you for some herbal remedies I gave him for his cough and chest problems so I am going to see if he has anymore this year (although I am hoping that he is well enough for me to be able to buy one this year lol).

Think I'll get an early night and make an early start on the household chores that I was too ill to manage over last weekend.

A day that has made me sad and livid

I have left Christian Forums... terminated my pet (which made me sad, even though I know it is not real), cleared my account, turned off all visitor and private messages and unless something drastic happens I shall not be back!

Not only was my prayer to Selene forcibly removed from my signature without them even asking me to remove it myself (which I would have grudgingly done) but because I said that generally some of the people were petty and juvunile for reporting me in the first place (and I have no idea who did it, as that kind of info is kept hush-hush over there) and said that to be afraid of a pagan prayer was laughably pathetic I was apparently rude and flaming to members or groups of members, and also I was causing people to not report things by saying that the people that were offended by my signature were pathetic!

How moronic can you get?!?! But then I can honestly say that I've yet to meet a christian that treats me with the attitude that they expect me to treat them with, so I shouldn't have been surprised by the nasty, elitest attitude displayed there!! Just confirmed what I've suspected all along really... that a lot of American christians are hypocritical, two-faced snakes that wouldn't understand tolerance and loving their neighbour if their pathetic lives depended upon it!!

Oh well... I am glad to be rid of the place... I feel lighter already for not being there. Even concerning the pet I feel as if I've freed him from having to be over there, LOL!!

Why is it so difficult...

... to get others to accept that it's ok to have a different opinion about faith?

I truly cannot see what gives people the right to say that they are right and others are wrong. Surely we can all accept that not everyone has to agree with us about everything concerning religion? Is it too much to ask for others to give out the same level of respect that they feel they deserve?

I just don't understand how some can treat my faith with such distain, yet then expect me to respect their beliefs without even questioning them!! Such hypocrisy and double standards make me sick!

Fortunately it is only online and cannot deeply hurt me like it would in real life... I have many other places to seek genuine inter-faith discourse... places where people actually do wish to hear an opinion that differs from their own!

So beautiful

I've just seen the most wonderful display of fireworks from my bedroom window. The colours and shapes were dazzling and the noise was deafening, but I'm glad that I was able to see them this year... last year they had moved the location on the heath where they let them off and I had no clear line of view (I don't like to go out alone and leave the house empty and the cats alone... the noise scares them and last year there was a series of burglaries in the street next to mine, thieves taking full advantage of the fact that people were out watching the display).

I sat on the window seat in my bedroom and opened the window and just enjoyed the show. I do feel sorry for my poor cats, though... poor things hate the noise, so I shut them snuggly up in the kitchen and put the radio on playing some classical music to try and muffle the sound... sounds silly, but it always works, lol.

As a treat I gave them some fresh fish that I got in town this morning (I had some, too)... a very good day all round, really.

Life lately

Well life has been quiet, which is to be expected after Samhain... things do seem to settle down and life reminds me as if it carries on under a blanket of thick snow, muffled and muted, but slowly moving forward.

Samhain was a small affair this year... just me and my Goddess and ancestors across the veil. I paid them all tribute with a small rite involving candles and white wine. It was simple but meaningful to me, and afterwards I poured out the wine in a libation before a beautiful waning full moon on my lawn. I felt a great sense of peace and tranquility, and I still do. I miss my passed loved ones more than I realised.

I must get to planning next years' garden... there are lots of things that I wish to try next year... more herbs and vegetables and even some fruit of some kind, if I can find some that are small enough (small fruit trees or something of that nature). I really wish that I had more land, but alas, I do not. I shall have to try and make the most out of the space available and resort to using pots and tubs for the overfill as usual (they are more watering and feeding, but the end results are worth the extra effort).

I must also see about making a start on things for Yule now... I may have people visiting me over that holiday and I want all to be prepared, just in case. Must look to sorting out the greenery and food, and see about preparing some sort of punch, as I don't drink and have no alcohol in the house (nor do I buy any except for using in craftwork). Must see about drying slices of orange again as I did a few years ago, they looked and smelled wonderful and lasted for ages, too.

At least the cats and I shall be eating like kings this year... I won a turkey in a raffle, so we shall be eating turkey until the new year as it's four times the size of the bird I would have bought, lol.

Must check the almanac and see the exact date of Yule this year.