It’s been a long time since I was this grateful for a Friday.

I woke up with swollen eyes from crying, my back was killing me, and I’ve got a headache.  I’ve also got a website launch on the 24th and this is not the time to call in sick.  Launch or bust…

I decided to drive in and give myself that luxury today and am very glad I did.  My car is close by if I need a break.

Things are mostly resolved from yesterday but I have asked that we get an unbiased third party to help us negotiate this one last detail.  Hopefully that will happen some time next week.  I look forward to advice and resolution.  I look forward to reconciliation.

Thankfully the one friend I did let go wasn’t really a friend.  More an acquaintance really, a friend of a friend.  The circumstances surrounding the decision caused me pain but losing them? Not one jot.  Just so that is clear.

As I lay in bed last night, well after midnight, still trying to get to sleep, I was very grateful when my mind turned to happier things.  What turned it was the sound of dried leaves whispering past my window and I suddenly smiled in the dark.

I decided that what I needed to post about today, really, are the things that make me smile.

Things That Make Me Smile (and sigh – aahhhhhhh)

Painting by Carrie Goller, hanging at the Global Art Venue in Seattle

Listening to the crispy fallen leaves dancing in the breeze blowing by my bedroom window.  Autumn is here.

The music on Blessings by S.J. Tucker.  The Horned one comes.  Autumn is here.

The V of geese flying through the misty pink morning.  Autumn is here.

The pomegranate on my alter that my mother gave me. She gives me a pomegranate every year.  The symbolism of my mother joyfully giving me the seeds so that I can choose when and how long I go elsewhere doesn’t escape me. Demeter she is not.  My mother is a joyous soul who understands that her daughter needs to fly her own flight.  Autumn is here.

My kitty licking my hand as I lie quiet in the dark.  Succor is here.

I’m alive.  I am here.

I went for a brief walk across campus on my lunch hour. It’s so nice this time of year when the heat has gone, at least today, and the students haven’t arrived. I noticed that there were a lot of women my age out and about. Women I don’t usually see. It made me smile. I’m at the beginning edges of Crone time in my life and in nature.

Like my mother and her mother before me I gathered nature’s bounty. I have a couple of stealth altars in my office, one is a statue of Hebe, nectar bearer to the Gods, another is a green mug full of pine cones and feathers between two Pacific Northwest Native drawings of the sun and moon.

On my desk I have one of those Asian cats, the ones with the paws in the air. Can’t think of their name at the moment but they are for prosperity and protection I think. At any rate, I took a picture and this is another thing that makes me smile.  Chestnuts, acorns, the last of the hydrangea and star jasmine.

Edit: the cat is a stylized Maneki Neko – Beckoning Cat – The most prevalent tale involves a poor temple in the woods: A traveler takes shelter under a nearby tree during a storm. A cat appears and beckons the traveler to follow it to avoid the storm in the temple. As soon as the traveler follows the cat, the tree and the spot he had been in are struck by lightning. Because the cat has saved him and brought him to the temple, the traveler and his family become patrons of the temple and bring it fame and wealth.

I also took some better pictures of some of my pouches and checkbook covers. They are behind the cut. Click to enlarge.

“you dazzle me with your lucidity through the harshest emotions”

Whoa.  Now that just dazzles ME.  I can’t stop reading it.  I’m such a crow, ooh pretty.

Which reminds me.  On my way to work this morning I saw a woman on the side walk with a large white towel carefully picking up what looked to be a crow stranded on the sidewalk.  It was the size of a crow and black black black against the white towel. I suppose it could have been a small cat.  Whatever it was it was still as stone. Another thing that made me smile.  A toast to those who rescue our feathered and tailed friends.

It’s been a long time since I was this grateful for a Friday.

I woke up with swollen eyes from crying, my back was killing me, and I’ve got a headache.  I’ve also got a website launch on the 24th and this is not the time to call in sick.  Launch or bust…

I decided to drive in and give myself that luxury today and am very glad I did.  My car is close by if I need a break.

Things are mostly resolved from yesterday but I have asked that we get an unbiased third party to help us negotiate this one last detail.  Hopefully that will happen some time next week.  I look forward to advice and resolution.  I look forward to reconciliation.

Thankfully the one friend I did let go wasn’t really a friend.  More an acquaintance really, a friend of a friend.  The circumstances surrounding the decision caused me pain but losing them? Not one jot.  Just so that is clear.

As I lay in bed last night, well after midnight, still trying to get to sleep, I was very grateful when my mind turned to happier things.  What turned it was the sound of dried leaves whispering past my window and I suddenly smiled in the dark.

I decided that what I needed to post about today, really, are the things that make me smile.

Things That Make Me Smile (and sigh – aahhhhhhh)

Painting by Carrie Goller, hanging at the Global Art Venue in Seattle

Listening to the crispy fallen leaves dancing in the breeze blowing by my bedroom window.  Autumn is here.

The music on Blessings by S.J. Tucker.  The Horned one comes.  Autumn is here.

The V of geese flying through the misty pink morning.  Autumn is here.

The pomegranate on my alter that my mother gave me. She gives me a pomegranate every year.  The symbolism of my mother joyfully giving me the seeds so that I can choose when and how long I go elsewhere doesn’t escape me. Demeter she is not.  My mother is a joyous soul who understands that her daughter needs to fly her own flight.  Autumn is here.

My kitty licking my hand as I lie quiet in the dark.  Succor is here.

I’m alive.  I am here.