Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
Chinese Proverb
Will they listen now?
As Gordon Brown and the Labour Party suffer their greatest losses in 40 years of local council elections in the UK - do you think they will listen to the resounding vote of no confidence?
I doubt it - they have allegedly been “listening” for the last umpteen years they have been in power - this is their chickens coming home to roost.
It is particularly ironic that Gordon Brown has been the architect of his own demise - it is his economic policies that are now bearing “rotten” fruit.
Margaret Thatcher carried the name of “milk snatcher” for taking away free milk for school children - Mr Brown is going to carry the label of “Pension Snatcher” for the rest of his years.
Yes at last the people are standing up and saying no more of this greedy avaricious government - who has failed to look after the most vulnerable in our society - the elderly, the sick and the poor. It has presided over the largest breakdown in family life this country has ever seen - it has denied a generation of children decent education and condemned hundreds of thousands of families to poverty and pensioners to penury.
Well done the voters of the UK for standing up and finally saying enough is enough.
BYB Sunday - Blog Your Blessings Sunday
Our Feathered Friends
My blessing this week is my new best friend - my own personal robin who feeds from my hand each morning and who has the most delightful song. He has been bringing a smile to my face every morning for the last couple of months and is a real joy.
As spring approaches our mornings are now full of birdsong - I really must try and tape it and see if I can make into a pod cast - it really is something else.
Hope to come and visit you all later - have a wonderful week.
BYB Sunday is the conception of NeoBluePanther. Please take a moment to visit him and the others in the BYB Sunday Blogroll listed on the right.
And just as you think spring has arrived - our first snow of the year!
Spring Eqinox - Ostara - Rites of Spring 2008
“Goddess Ostara”
The Goddess Ostara’s (Eostre’s) celebration day can vary from the spring equinox (circa March 21) to the first full moon after the equinox. She is the Anglo-Saxon / Germanic Goddess of new beginnings, fertility, hope and renewal. It is a time of balance between day and night. Her symbols include the hare, colored eggs, spring flowers, in older times celebrants wore brand new clothing to celebrate her festival. Does this all sound familiar? It should, the symbolism and even the name of Ostaras / Eostre’s festival were adopted by the Christian celebration of Easter which also celebrates renewal and rebirth. One should note, that the holiday of Easter moves every year. It always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
Ostara is an interesting Goddess because she is considered a Maiden Goddess but instead of a new crescent, uses full moon energy. This makes sense if we consider that she is the Goddess who fires up all the growth in the spring. Physics teaches us that an object at rest, tends to stay at rest, it takes more energy to begin momentum that continue it. Consider the seed sleeping beneath the earth or the bud tightly wrapped on a tree branch. It’s like when the alarm goes off while you are snug under your blankets; the hardest part is just getting up and moving, and it takes a lot of energy to get started. That may explain a Maiden with full moon energy.
This dynamic Lady of spring has also had the female hormone Estrogen named after her. Bursting full of the power of femininity as well as regeneration, she takes the relay of life firmly in hand as the Crone has passed it to her from the underworld. As we note the sprouts, buds and blossoms bursting forth from the deep dark earth, take a moment to thank Ostara.
BYB - Blog Your Blessings Sunday
My blessing for today - even though it is a little late is the great joy and love my children bring me. It is also a good news post about them and a proud mummy post for me.
My eldest has got a pay rise and is getting a years worth of training courses from her employer - her partner who works with her has been made assistant manager.
My son has been visiting this weekend with his friends - bringing life and energy - until they all passed out on the sofa last night after being surfing all day. He is also being put on a course by his company. He also bought his new girlfriend down to visit and she is lovely too.
My youngest is a rising star …. one of her undergraduate papers is going to be published in a major scientific journal and she has been offered a PhD at her University. She is also off to Australia for a month in the summer.
So my wonderful children - thank you for being the blessings you are - may you fly high and fly safe.
BYB Sunday is the conception of NeoBluePanther. Please take a moment to visit him and the others in the BYB Sunday Blogroll listed on the right.
BYB - Blog Your Blessings Sunday
Image by Josephine Wall
MOTHERING SUNDAY
Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It is of Christian origin , based on the Christian Calendar on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
As a child of Christian parents, Mothering Sunday activities centered around Sunday School activities where we were taught the importance of Mothers and of course of Mary the mother of Jesus. We were taught that this was a special day to honour Mary and all mothers. We would make special gifts for our mothers and also collect and make spring posies for them which were given to them at the special Mothering Sunday Service - one of the few times in the year they allowed all the children to attend the main service rather than Sunday School.
My mother being the traditionalist she was, always insisted on calling this day by its correct name “Mothering Sunday” rather than the more modern “Mother’s Day”.
It was a special day in our household, with breakfast in bed for her, followed by the special church service and then a special Sunday roast dinner cooked by my father. We would then (weather permitting) visit one of her favourite places in the afternoon. When my children were younger we continued these traditions - it was my turn for soggy cereal, burnt toast and cold tea for breakfast. We would then all go to visit my parents - and my dad would still cook a special dinner and we would all go out for the afternoon.
I am feeling her loss acutely at the moment - in spite of all my rationalizations and preparations and the knowledge that her passing was more inevitable with her age - and I am feeling her loss far more than I anticipated I would.
However all is not bleak - I have the love and support of my partner and many dear and close friends who are helping me in many ways - giving me a shoulder to cry on when I need to and space to be alone when I need that also.
Mothering Sunday also heralds spring, a time of renewal for the earth, a time for new growth, a time for planting seeds, for making plans and for celebrating the wonder of mother nature.
My path is a spiritual path - not a religious one. I follow the earth’s seasons and more ancient earth based traditions. My blessing today is that of Mother Earth.
BYB Sunday is the conception of NeoBluePanther. Please take a moment to visit him and the others in the BYB Sunday Blogroll listed on the right.
BYB - Blog Your Blessings Sunday
Forgive me in advance for this one - it is a culmination of thoughts on a rather poignant day. Just as on December 15th I commemorated the birth of my first born son 25 years ago - today I remember his death - nine weeks later from meningitis. This on top of the loss of my mother on New Years Eve has made me feel it so much more this year.
However there are lessons I have learned from all this - to take nothing and no-one for granted, to live each day as is it was your last, to be the best person you can be, to tell those that you love that they are loved, show them that they are loved - often and at every opportunity - you may not get another.
These today are my blessings - the lessons I have learned and although hard - I am grateful for.
BYB Sunday is the conception of NeoBluePanther. Please take a moment to visit him and the others in the BYB Sunday Blogroll listed on the right.
I will try and catch up with everyone later tonight or tomorrow.
Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Imbolc Blessings
Imbolc Blessings
“Night of lit white candles
Darkness turned to light
Everything she touches she changes
Feast of waxing flame
Fire of heart and hearth
Fire of the mind, flickering of spark
Quickening of air, warming into inspiration
Thawing in her innocence, snow into desire
She shines for all of us
She burns within us all
Spiral heat of life, the fires to create
Awakening, arising is her need,
Her candle is our only source.”
BYB Sunday is the conception of NeoBluePanther. Please take a moment to visit him and the others in the BYB Sunday Blogroll listed on the right.
