Side Stepping

By Cate Cavanagh

It happens to all of us. We are walking along and poof! Out of no where is an unpleasant excrement on our shoe! The truth of the matter is we simply did not notice it in our immediate surroundings. We do anything we can to rid ourselves (and our shoes) of this unpleasantness until it is gone. We get annoyed with ourselves for not seeing this in our path. But, what gunk do we willingly carry around with us every day? Are we carrying around a guilt that no one realizes? Are we weighing ourselves down with feelings of unworthiness?

There is no doubt that negative concepts about ourselves probably came about as the result of programming from the time we were children but does that mean we should allow ourselves to bring these into our every waking moment? Do you have trouble sleeping? If you do you are probably in brain overload which means things keep racing in your mind. You cannot stop thinking about them or feeling overwhelmed. In short you are walking on a mental path with "stuff" you are walking into all the time. Going back to cleaning our shoes and cursing at ourselves for stepping into unplesantness, a little cursing at carrying around unpleasant personsal baggage might be called for. You see when we get angry oftentimes we are willing to do something about it like cleaning off that soiled shoe.

Imagine you are that shoe. Imagine cleaning it off. Imagine not stepping into our personal gunk to begin with. Sometimes awareness can begin to change our circumstance. For example, won't we become more aware of our surroundings and not step into pooh again? Why shouldn't we also become aware enough to not fall for the mental and emotional pitfalls that we may come across? Sometimes if we want to change that which is around us and in us we have to begin by making changes within ourselves first. Shrug off anything you cannot solve in any moment. If you have to, imagine you are holding an eraser over a piece of paper. In your mind write what is bothering you on that piece of paper and then erase it! Each time you do this you are heightening your self awareness and saying I choose not to carry this internal pooh on my soul.

Sometimes we need help in learning how to better to avoid our pitfalls. There is nothing wrong with seeking help when we trap ourselves day in and day out by not seeing the "Pooh". Sometimes we need help learning how to side step the unpleasantness we carry all the time such as psychotherapy can help you. Whatever it takes to help you avoid your personal pitfalls will be worth the effort.

A Pocket Full of Miracles

A Pocket Full of Miracles
By Cate Cavanagh

Are you in a dark place? Are you feeling like a victim to your circumstances? Are you emotionally fumbling? Do you feel your life has nothing miraculous in it? Everyone goes through rough times and everyone has times where they feel abandoned spiritually, losing hope through times of lacking faith. None of us are alone when it comes to experiencing the despair of darkness. Finding hope and faith can be difficult at these times but not impossible to obtain or regain.

I have found counting blessings not at night (as the song goes) but in the morning helps me frame my mental attitude for the day. Another is my mantra "I am blessed." You see over time you will feel blessed. Wish someone a blessed day and you will get a smile. Blessings are easy to give so why not give youself as many as you can? Before we can see our blessings however, we may have to do some math.

There are 186,000 seconds in a day. This means on a given day if we have food on the table, no matter how meager, we have 186,000 blessings or miracles. Now if you add having a roof over your head your miracles for that day have now doubled to 372,000 miracles. It is all a matter of perspective. If you have active children add 186,000 miracles to each one. Is at least one parent alive? If so add another 186,000 miracles to your day. If you recovering from illness you are fortunate to be around to do so. True there may be really serious problems you are facing but if you are not consumed today by them, you have just found more moments of miracles.

The power to undergo our hardships gracefully is a matter of perspective and having faith and spirituality basically in tact. The next time you feel overwhelmed by your situation stop and do the math.

Welcome To My World

Welcome to my world of magic! My world is a place that is blessed with the winds, water, earth and fire to help me in my everyday path of walking with my Goddess, Hecate. To those of you that are Pagan you understand my world. For others this may not make sense but I assure you that those that walk the path trust their goddess as much as any other person might trust their god.

To walk the Pagan/Witch path is to accept accountability and responsibility for what we sow as a result of our own actions. You see somewhere along the line we chose an action that spiraled into our future for good or not. This path is a tough one at times because we must hold harmless those that we might like to blame. Whatever our youth was we can choose to be the best person we can be and show compassion to all living things, human and animal alike.

Surprised that my post on my magical world deals with responsibility? Real magic cannot change reality with a wand. Real magic can change reality with a wish, a hope and a dream that we are prepared to labor for. Wishes do come true, dreams feel closer and days feel magical when you walk the Pagan path because you become connected to everything around you. You are part of the circle, or Wheel, of life and as important as anything else in this circle.

Magic is feeling the power of a breeze and knowing that sometimes your
goddess is whispering in your ear. Magic is the exhilaration of a bond fire dancing in the darkness of night. Magic is the cleansing of body and soul through water and it is the comfort of Mother Earth when standing barefoot upon the grass.

My magical world has faeries, spirits and Poseidon himself as my spirit father.
My magical world believes in miracles and because I have believed in them I have seen them. My magical world is my security blanket and as comforting as a feather bed.

Welcome to my magical world. As you allow me to share my thoughts with you I wish you blessings! Blessed Be!

Introduction

Greetings all!

Magic is alive and well although not like you would find at Hogwarts, it is a living breathing reality for those of us that walk its path. Magic is everywhere and we can gather it into ourselves to help us be better stewards of the earth as well as help us through our every day lives. But magic is much more than waving a wand! Magic creates change as one masters the discipline only true and real magic demands.

I am an eclectic Witch so living magic is something I know very well. The best magic is subtle yet so powerful it can transform us at any given moment. Magic empowers the mind so the focus of my writings has always been on learning how to create the life you want or how to be happier through magic and the mental discipline magic entails.

So, stop by now and then. You will want to know more about magic and change...I know you will!