Tag Archives: decadence

Beltaine 2019 – Live Deliciously

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This has been quite a life, thus far.

Beltaine falls at this time of year where the planet is juuust coming into ripeness and fullness. We are each of us, ripe and full with different things. Sometimes we are literally ripe and ready to conceive, and sometimes we are just at the point where we are ready to move forward into a new thing, something we have been dying to try but have not been ready to before now. New crafts, new recipes, a new activity….maybe finally step into the gym, or into a retirement….it’s all of those things, but they all have one thing in common.

It’s the EXPERIENCE of it, you see. The experience of trying something new.

When you try a new food, you smell it, look at it…you chew it and roll it around in your mouth to test the texture and taste…you experience that food in a different way than you do, say, a burger, because you don’t EXPERIENCE burgers anymore….you just eat them.

There is a quote from The Witch (an excellent period horror movie that is well written and acted, and not filled with silliness) which is, “Would you like to live deliciously?”

Imagine that you are a puritan, super suppressed, joy is limited to those things that involve your concept of God…how tempting, how liberating (how intimidating? How frightening?) is that question?

Pagans in general (and there are always exceptions, for there are so many branches of Pagan) experience Deity in every-day life. Sunrises, or the migration of birds, the smell of grass, the sound of water, the beauty of the bonfire. All these things are sacred to us, and sometimes we forget that we should be experiencing them in addition to just looking at them. There are things in our every day lives that can be experienced more fully….I often think about it when taking the clothes out of the dryer. I love the warmth, the smell of fabric softener or detergent, I use Patchouli laundry detergent, or Frankincense and Myrrh. It’s a job, sure, but it’s also a little interlude where I can bury my face in that smell and just enjoy and be grateful that this is in my world. When I was younger, I was too poor to afford fabric softener, and I often had to take my clothes to a laundromat. This luxury of doing clothes at home is lovely. Sure, it’s a chore, but it’s also so much better than my life before. I think of that when I do vacuuming, or when I am loading the dishwasher. My life has led me to this place where I know these things are luxuries, and I am grateful. And I experience them BECAUSE I am grateful, not just doing the chores.

My Beltaine wish for you is that you find your deliciousness, whatever it is, and you spend some time doing that. If you already know what it is, I wish that your technique of enjoyment spreads to other things, so you can live even more deliciously than before. If you are with a significant other, rediscover your partner (sensually or otherwise)….if you are alone, rediscover your Self. (Sensually or otherwise…You deserve that time, believe me.)

Life is Delicious…Savor and Devour it. Get the juice on your chin, the berry-stains on your fingers. Roll around in it, get the smell in your hair and clothes and skin.

As long as you are breathing there will be more, and someday you will breathe no more. Don’t disservice yourself by living with less. Always reach for more. Be a glutton for Joy.

Blessed Beltaine.

After Sirius

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How many coincidences do you need before you see a pattern? I return to that question over and over, knowing I’m way past that number, knowing I can’t explain it, knowing that I see things hear things know things am things….so many things.

It’s like hearing a chord of music that’s just out of your range. You can tell me it isn’t there, I know what I hear. Like having x-ray vision…how many correctly diagnosed broken bones do you need? How many correctly diagnosed hairline fractures? Enough, I say, enough, and it’s like the world says no, we need to show you again. You need to KNOW. You need to carry it into your bones screaming, you need the note in your head to become music, YOU NEED THIS, and I can only reel from it all, because it is all so, so, SO much bigger than me.

It is beautiful and kind, like the kiss of a mother goodnight. It is frightening and terrifying, like a creature from a nightmare brought to life. It is so many things, so many extremes, and I wish I could show you. I wish I could give you just a flash of these things, and then I wonder if it would drive you crazy. I wonder if I’m crazy. I wonder if the whole world is crazy.

I wonder if crazy is such a terrible thing.

I’m standing on the edge of a very deep abyss. I mean, sometimes it is. Sometimes I’m at the base of a very large cliff. Sometimes I can see things moving off in the distance, sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrifying. I have trouble looking away. They are what they are, they don’t notice me. I’m not important enough for them. Not yet. Maybe someday. Or maybe never. They’re not the important thing anyway.

I am so many things…I am wild energy spinning in place. I am so motionless I see sunlight and wind before they happen. My world moves so slowly the flap of a bird’s wing takes a full minute. I move so slowly I am a rock, dancing.

I am all of these things and none of them. I wish you could touch this thing I am. I wish I could share it like the smell of mown grass, or the heat of pavement in the summertime. I wish I could give you this gift. I feel like every part of me is exploding like the universe, and I suppose I am. So are you. So are all of us, all at once, but we’ve forgotten. We’ve forgotten that we’re hurtling through space on a spinning rock, that we are constantly in motion, that everything is connected to everything else, that sunlight is one of the most beautiful things in the world. That the laughter of children holds something precious we cannot touch or see. We hear it, we like it, we want to hear more of it because it pleases us, but listen here, at this motionless moment where everything stops.

So beautiful. And we are so very, VERY small.

And in us, in each of us is that exploding moment, where we are exploding still. Each of us expanding as fast as our hearts will allow.

Go faster. It’s beautiful here.

Go Faster.