The Waters of Avalon

Blessings Darlings!

There is a pagan chant, a filk of the hymn "Waters of Babylon" that is based on Psalm 137:1, that has been running thru' my mind this week.

"By the waters, by the waters, by the waters of Avalon,
We lay down and wept, and wept, for this aeon.
We remember, we remember, we remember Avalon"

Rivers.  Weeping. Remembering. 

I grew up in the Chicago area.  Hymns - either Judeo-Christian-Islamic or Pagan - that referred to 'going up on the mountain' were rather at odds with the land we lived on.  And, trust me, you're going to lose a battle with the genius loci every time.

But water and rivers WERE a feature of our land, flat as it is.  My first years were spent living a half block west of Lake Michigan, which I ran to at every opportunity.  The western most border of my 'home area' was the north branch of the Chicago river. 

Other local rivers joined my internal map as the years went on.  The Des Plaines river - as far west as I tended to bike, and on the shores of which I got married.  The Fox River, where my family had owned a tiny bit of land and a barn, and where they spent as much of the un-air-conditioned summers as they could.  Stories were told of that house and land, of my uncles walking the plowed fields near the river searching for arrow heads.  Later I occasionally swam in it.  Still later, my husband and I lived along it, and had our child while living there.

Once in Maryland, while driving over bridges over waterways was pretty standard, we lived along the Patuxent River.

Now, I live in the Rocky Marsh watershed, on the Potomac river, close to the confluence of the relaxed and relatively clear Potomac river and the fast and muddy Shenandoah river.

Living water has always been my go-to for grounding and peace.  Even when visiting Sedona, Arizona - I wasn't hiking to the vortices.  I was staying north of the city along the Oak Creek River, swimming in it, listening to its voice as I slept.  Days were hiking the West Fork trail, along the creek.  I could sit on the bank of the creek for hours, watching it, listening to it.

In this Tower Time, I'm called back to the rivers.  I'm going to sit by the confluence of the rivers and listen for the wisdom.  Let the river wash away the feelings of sorrow and helplessness.  Let the living waters, as old as the hills, shapers of the land, fill me with their endurance, persistence, and power. 

And then I'll return.  And help kick ass, as best I can.

This post inspired by many folks and waters, but mostly by Eridanus Darryl Kummerow's post about how he's going to be looking for peace in his home - which happens to be near the very same Fox River that runs thru' my life.

Frondly, Fern

Tis the Season

Blessings Darlings!

Tis the Season ... to discuss hunger, homelessness, and related issues.

I live kinda rural, so homelessness is relatively hidden in my area.  You don't walk by folks sleeping on grates here, unlike when I hung out in DC.  Which is NOT NOT NOT to say that homelessness is not a problem here.  Many an overgrown, vine covered 'abandoned' house is being lived in here, it's just hard to know.  A roughly put together shelter of scrounged plywood, out in the woods, is going to be pretty invisible.

And certainly even when folks do have homes, many have no utilities.  You might never realized that your neighbor has had their electricity cut off a year or more ago. 

Even among my coworkers, being without running water isn't unusual.  Whether they live in a house that just never has had running water, or their well has gone dry, or the well has been contaminated (welcome to West Virginia, where mining waste is EVERYWHERE), or it has been cut off, it's reality.  Perhaps this is the most 'visible' thing in the area ... if you look for it.  The old people in line in front of you at the dollar store, getting all those paper plates and cups? They don't have water, they can't wash 'regular' stuff (they don't have garbage pick up, either, and will burn these after use).  The folks you see carrying jugs of water from the tap outside the Post Office?  Yes, them, too.

Keep your eyes open.

Frondly, Fern

Havamal, Part 3

Blessings Darlings!

So, we've gone over some of the rights and responsibilities of host/guest, or neighbors, or business interactions, or politics (for all of them are social situations, thus fundamentally the same).  Now the Havamal moves on to more situational awareness and survival, then 'thrival', strategy.

Who travels widely needs his wits about him,
The stupid should stay at home, 
The ignorant man is often laughed at
When he sits at meat with the sage.

Of his knowledge a man should never boast,
Rather be sparing of speech
When to his house a wiser comes:
Seldom do those who are silent
Make mistakes; mother wit
Is ever a faithful friend.

A guest should be courteous
When he comes to the table
And sit in wary silence,
His ears attentive, his eyes alert:
So he protects himself.

I consider the above verses wisdom on situational awareness, especially when on the road/in a business situation/in ANY social situation.  It's less succinct and ... cutesy than "you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak".  

They speak about a really basic truth - anyone who is clearly trying to impress others DOES tend to impress them ... negatively.  If you're so hot, those around you won't need you to tell them.  And if you're talking smack about how rich your family is, all that you're going to do is set them up to be raided, especially if you're explaining exactly where your defenses are at the same time!

And if you keep YOUR mouth running, you can't evaluate those around you.  You need to know who is sensible, who bullshits, who sees everything negatively, who sees everything too positively, who talks behind others' backs, etc.  



Fortunate is he who is favored in his lifetime
With praise and words of wisdom;
Evil counsel is often given
By those of evil heart.


Blessed is he who in his own lifetime
Is awarded praise and wit,
For ill counsel is often given 
By mortal men to each other 

Evil counsel and ill counsel are only different in what motivates them.  Their effect, if you follow the counsel, is the same for you.  You'll be sorry.  Always consider the source when folks give you advice, and their motivation.

BTW - you ARE evaluating my words here that way, too, aren't you? What are my motives in posting this, and in my amplifications?  


Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
Better than riches for a wretched man,
Far from his own home.


Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
A more tedious burden than too much drink
A traveler cannot carry.


Less good than belief would have it
Is mead for the sons of men:
A man knows less the more he drinks,
Becomes a befuddled fool. 

Yes, drinking can cause problems.  I suppose that this advice comes from the time before everyone drank because the water was fouled by human contamination?  It's a bit of a wonder, tho', since in all the Eddas and Sagas you don't hear about people being served fresh cold water to drink, or even herbal teas, and the only time I recall milk being mentioned was when it was poured down a well to drive out poison.  For that matter, the only time I recall Thor drinking water was when he was enchanted and thought he was drinking ale from a big horn .... the other end of the horn was the ocean! So just what WAS one expected to drink if not mead and ale?

On that note, I'm off to make myself another cup of tea.


Frondly, Fern

Ahhhhhhhhhh

Blessings Darlings!

Stress.  We all have it - life is full of things that we feel are stressful.  So, what to do about it?

Short Term Fixes

I get tension head aches.  Which are caused by holding stress in my  neck and shoulders.  So I have to take time during higher-stress times to work on relaxing those muscles.  Head circles, shoulder circles, getting the Chubby Hubby or Spawn to give me neck/shoulder rubs, rubbing my neck myself, all those type of things.

Visualization works here as well. I can close my eyes and take a few deep breaths.  While doing that I visualize the breath going to my shoulders/neck, breaking up the tension there, and the tightness leaving with each exhalation.  Done when I first feel the headache coming on it can take care of it in just a minute or two!

It can be hard to concentrate when feeling stressed.  Start by having a cup of tea (or water).  First, doing this interrupts the stress-building pattern.  Second, the extra fluids help 'dilute' the cortisol your body produces when stressed.

Again, visualization can be a tool.  While I work at home, so can always light a candle and visualize it burning up the stress, allowing me to be calm and focused, you can visualize the stress going to a plant in your office where it is transmuted (like the plant transmutes carbon dioxide into oxygen), or you might have charged and lit a candle for this at some time at home, and when snuffing it charged that, say, 'the flame burns forever in the worlds beyond' so you can send the stress to the candle to be transmuted any time, any day, any where.  You can wash your hands, and visualize the stress washing away with the water.

Long Term Fixes

But wouldn't it be best to set up life so there is less stress?  Spend a little time early in the day (or the night before) getting things ready for the day.  Make a to-do list, many lists, so your day is organized and you don't forget things.  Do all you can pre-emptively.  Pay attention to details that will trip you up later.  Check your facts.  Exercise and eat right, so your body can better deal with what stress is going to happen. Give yourself extra time to do, well, EVERYTHING.

Frondly, Fern