Michael and Jaspenelle

Jesus

It is perhaps because I follow a Pagan path, but most people are surprised when I tell them I follow many of Jesus’s teachings quite strongly. It is also the main reason I stay away from strictly organized religion, most Christians take issue that I don’t believe Jesus was the Son Of God in the traditional sense. I care more about his teachings then family tree. Jesus also had is own issues with organized religion, I think he would be horrified to see the things that have been done in his name.

To me “God” is simply a universal energy (Great Mystery/Manitou/Qi) that connects us all, from which we create facets that form our individual deities (Yahweh, Aphrodite, Isis, Three Pure Ones, Olorun, Ninhursag etc. Spaghedeity?) to help us better understand our present situation. In that light, I think we are all part of “God”.

Anyhow, about Jesus. To me he was a great spiritual teacher, like Buddha, and when you strip away all the dogma that now surrounds him (and who knows what that was lost in translation) Jesus’s teachings are mostly very basic and immensely powerful concepts.

Jesus taught love. There is no commandment greater than this. He taught this concept through compassion towards others, healing the sick, washing his disciples feet, stopping the stoning of a woman etc. Our actions speak louder the words and compassion is an amazing force I try to live my life by. It is certainly not always easy, especially when it comes to loving your enemy. I try to remember that my enemies can be my greatest teachers though. (This teaching is what drives a huge wedge between me and some Christians who spew hatred towards people who don’t follow their exact flavor of Christianity.)

Jesus taught forgiveness. Beyond requesting forgiveness from God (which I don’t do) Jesus said we must first learn to forgive those who have wronged us, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” This is another exercise in compassion, it can be hard to keep forgiving someone, and sometimes we must determine if they are truly sorry for their actions or if it ourself imposing our own beliefs on them. It is hard to be the judge of such things… which leads to the next point.

Jesus taught us not to be hypocrites. We have all done bad things (”sinned” if you prefer) and it is hypocritical to take an eye for an eye. Our love and compassion should be our guide on how we treat others, not man-made rules. I try to always live what I believe, leading by example? Ultimately I believe we win people over by love, not force (which is probably why threats of damnation and hell never work on me.) We should live and love not “for show” but because we truly want to live by that virtue.

Jesus taught prayer. Yes I pray, though I may not call them that and they are also not directed towards any deity. For me a prayer is simply a silent or vocal acknowledgment of gratitude. It is easier to me to remain in a place of wholeness and love if I take time to remember the things I am thankful for. Whether I am saying a blessing over dinner or taking time each day to list things that bring me joy, I see them all as prayers.

Jesus taught generosity. There is one story in the New Testament, where Jesus and his disciples are watching people donate to a temple. An old woman gives a couple coins, which is nothing next to other donations, but it is everything she had. Jesus says she is the most charitable of them all. When you give with love and expect nothing in return you open yourself to receive a multitude of gifts. I know this to be true in my life through experience, when I give, even in difficult times, new and unexpected ways to flourish open to me. Jesus never said that it is bad thing to be wealthy, but it is a bad thing to become blinded by the need for possessions. When you cannot part with your wealth to share even a little compassion, you become a slave to it.

My beliefs are pretty much a mishmash of everything I have read, which is probably why the Pagan path is so appealing to me. We have no doctrine and are free to make our own and adapt it as we learn and grow. My main spiritual focus has always been around being a steward of the Earth, whom I refer to a Mother Earth, and intrinsic part of that is the practice of compassion because if we show compassion for all things it is easier to nurture healing and growth (in my opinion at least.) Jesus’s teachings certainly are filled with compassion, hence they are solidly integrated with my personal beliefs.

I didn’t realize such a diverse crowd read my blog, thanks for all you comments on my last post!

Blessed Lughnasadh!

Blessed Lughnasadh!

(I wrote about this sabbat last year if you would like to read more about it. I’ve learned more since that article but it is still a good general overview.)

Lughnasadh is going to be quite different for us this year since we now have Damian! His grandpa Tolman will be here to visit. I want to make an effort to celebrate all the sabbats with Damian but this one might wait till next weekend. I like that cross-quarter days are flexible like that! Heck my solstices and equinoxes kind of are too.

This year I am going to share my seasonal feast recipes with you. I haven’t tried to peach one yet so I will have to get back to you about how that ones goes. My recipes are all very loose and leave a lot of room for personal taste. I rarely follow instructions except if I am making bread… even then I tend to switch to whole wheat… Speaking of whole wheat, Lighnasadh does celebrate the grain harvest so how about some bread?

BREAD: Baguette

• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup bread flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour

- In a large bowl combine honey and warm water, stir in yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes, until foamy.
- Add salt. Add flours 1 cup at a time until dough starts to come together. Turn out onto a floured surface and kneed in the rest of the flour until smooth (about 10 minutes.)
- Place dough in an oiled and turn to coat the surface. Cover and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours.
- Punch down and form into long slender loaf (approx 21 inches long and 3 inches wide.) Place diagonally on a lightly greased large baking sheet and let rise uncovered for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- After loaf has risen make 3-6 diagonal slashes on it with sharp knife and lightly brush top with cool water. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack. (If you can wait long enough for it to cool, warm baguette smothered in fresh butter or preserves, yum!)

APPETIZER: Bruschetta
There is about a dozen different ways to make this, but this is the way I grew up with, more or less. The ingredients are very flexible and can (and should!) be done to taste.

• 6 tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced (I use a garlic press)
• a handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 baguette (homemade)
• Olive oil

- Toss together tomatoes, garlic and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside to allow flavors to meld.
- Slice baguette into 1-inch pieces and toast. Drizzle with olive oil. (Alternately you can cut the garlic cloves in half and rub them against the toast before drizzling.)
- Top with tomato mixture and serve.

MAIN DISH: Grilled Chicken Salad

• 4 grilled chicken breasts, sliced
• Homemade raspberry vinaigrette
• 1 head lettuce, torn up - I like red leaf or romaine
• 2 cups spinach, torn up
• 2 cucumbers, seeded and diced
• 1 cup corn
• 2 or 3 or 4 tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 cup mozzarella, cubed or shredded

- Make vinaigrette. Mine uses about 8 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp raspberry vinegar, 1 to 2 tbsp local honey, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper. Still all that in a jar and shake. Viola vinaigrette. (I make my own raspberry vinegar but I have seen it in some stores, you could use any fruit vinegar, or apple cider vinegar, or balsamic for that matter.)
- Marinate chicken breasts in some vinaigrette for 30 minutes to and hour. Or you can be inpatient like me and stick some vinaigrette and the chicken in a ziplock and hit with with a rolling pin a few times until it flattens. Force marination.
- Grill chicken and slice. I like it left warm but you could certainly chill if that is your thing.
- In a large bowl toss together your chicken and your other ingredients with more vinaigrette. (Alternately, you could layer it lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, cheese.)

DESSERT: Grilled Peaches
I can’t wait to try this. I saw it on the news awhile ago and since peaches are in season right now, what better way to celebrate the local harvest! Not sure if I see the point of the brown sugar, fresh local peaches are already very sweet.

• Peaches, 1 per personal
• 2 tsp brown sugar per peach
• Melted butter, enough to brush your peaches with
• Vanilla ice cream

- Cut peaches along the seam all the way around and twist off the pit. Brush cut sides with butter.
- Cook, cut side down, on a hot grill until fruit has grill marks, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Brush tops with butter, turn over, and move to indirect heat. Put 1 tsp of sugar in each peach where the pit was.
- Cover grill and cook until sugar is melted and fruit is tender, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

If you celebrate Lughnasadh what do you intend of filling your family’s bellies with? Even if you don’t what are you having for dinner? Some local foods too I hope!

This new design

As you have probably noticed (unless you read blogs solely through RSS, like me, or livejournal - if so, visit the site!) Michael has completely redesigned the layout, which he blogged about. He didn’t purposely keep the new design for me, but rather, I haven’t had the time to shoulder surf as he works lately. So the new design almost feels like a surprise to me.

I’ve never been a huge fan of cluttered sites and I love this design because it feels so bright and clean (even though I still need to reorganize the links and blogroll.) I have to admit, in my mommy brained sleep dep mode I couldn’t find the comment link on my page (doh!) but it is in fact right there in the left column, where I looked a dozen times and then twittered it was the right column… (dyslexics untie!) In my defense most blogs I read have it at the bottom of the posts. I like this new placement though.

I love the Twitter feeds under Michael and my blogs on the frontpage too. Damian doesn’t have one, a little young for texting (I usually twitter via my phone.) The “HMOTD” tweet means “Happiest Moment of the Day” by the way. It is one of my daily practices in gratitude. I got the idea from another twitterer.

Damian might not have a Twitter, but he does have a blog now, which is quite possibly my favorite feature. It is underneath Michael’s on the main page. Not that he can type yet, but Michael and I are more then happy to write what we think he is thinking. A lot of his development updates and daily life-with-baby stuff will probably end up there. My sister-in-law has a similar one for her daughter Emily that I love.

Anyhow I am a creature of habit so it will take me some getting use to, but so far I am loving it.

Photos from Manito

This past Saturday, our photographer friend Andrea did some family photos of us in Manito Park. It was really fun. I really love how the photos turned out, Andrea did an excellent job.

We are hoping to get her to take a set every few months for the first year. We are going to be getting prints of a few of our favorites from this shoot. I can’t wait to see them! (and frame and scrapbook them. I have been working on Damian’s “First Year” scrapbook lately.)

This one of us is one of my favorite of the three of us (we are getting a couple extra prints of it for family too.)

These are a few of the others from that day:

Tracy Holeton and Rosemary

I received a package from her with an adorable baby outfit in it but there was no note with it. The return address baby outfit from her, no note or anything. The return address is to a Tracy Holeton of Unico Inc. in Franksville, WI? I don’t know any Tracys.

Anyone know who my mystery woman is?

In totally unrelated news the maintenance people for our townhouse complex killed my rosemary. They were out spraying the other day and apparently the don’t know the difference between weeds in ground and a potted plant on my steps. Two days later the weeds and my rosemary are completely dead.

Arg! I’m pissed! That was my most used herb.

Lughnasadh Feast Blessing

I was working on putting all the information I have on Lughnasadh together in an understandable order when I ran across this feast blessing. I have always rather liked it but I have no clue what the original source was. Does anyone recognize it?

Now is the Time of the First Harvest,
When the bounties of Nature give of themselves
So that we may survive
O God of the ripening fields, Lord of the Grain,
Grant me the understanding of Sacrifice
As you prepare to deliver yourself
Under the sickle of the Goddess

And journey to the lands of Eternal Summer
O Goddess of the Dark Moon,
Teach me the secrets of rebirth
as the Sun loses its strength and the nights grow cold.

I partake of the First Harvest,
Mixing its energies with mine
That I may continue my quest
For the starry wisdom of Perfection
O Lady of the Moon and Lord of the Sun,
before Whom the Stars halt their courses,
I offer my thanks
For the continuing Fertility of the Earth.
May the nodding grain loose its seeds
To be buried in the Mother’s breast
Ensuring Rebirth in the Warmth of next Spring.

[EDIT: A commenter informed me that it originally appeared in "Wicca, A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" by Scott Cunningham.]

My dad will be arriving in Spokane to visit on Lughnasadh, hopefully we won’t scare him too much, hehe.

Some people have asked me if I will be raising Damian in my spiritual path, the answer is yes and no. I have no desire to hide my spirituality with him or exclude him from the traditions Michael and I have formed (such as celebrating the sabbats.) I think family traditions are important and give a child memories to look back on later in life, much the way I fondly look back on Christmas and Easter now.

This will be his first Lughnasadh and he will be present for our celebration of course. As he grows I will explain as much of our beliefs to him as I feel he is ready to absorb. I also intend on teaching him other belief systems as well, and ultimately the choice if what he wishes to practice is his. There is no such thing as too much knowledge. When he is older, if he chooses to continue to follow my path, so be it, if he is called to another, so be it.

Six Week Visit

Damian and I had our six week postpartum visit yesterday. The gap in my abdominal muscles has healed, my uterus is back to its normal size and my tear is mostly healed, she still wants me to wait four more weeks before any… baby creating activities. They want me to come back in a month to check it again and fit me for a diaphragm as well. I feel great and today I fit into my prepregnancy jeans for the first time since giving birth. They are my bloaty pms jeans but I am totally not complaining! I do not know if I will ever fit back into my “skinny jeans”, not because I won’t loose the rest of the baby weight but because I think my hips are permanently wider from carrying Damian.

Damian is doing extremely well. My midwife told me it is great if he has gained 2lbs since birth. He has gone in 8lbs 8oz to 12lbs 4oz, gaining 3lbs12oz! Beth was shocked and really pleased, she says he is the biggest six week baby she has weighed in a long time. She was really impressed that he can hold his head up as well as any 3 month old too. We really do have a super baby.

Tomorrow our photographer friend, Andrea, is going to do family portraits of us in Manito Park. Temple Free Spirit is also having a potluck picnic there at noon (we are meeting by the duck pond.) I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

My first post

My cousin Emily has a cool blog that I like to read, and I wanted one too! So I grinned at my daddy, and he added me to mommy and daddy’s blog.

Today I’m going through another growth spurt, so I am eating almost all day.

When I’m not eating, mommy gives me tummy time. I am trying to learn how to roll over, I can already get to my side from my back or belly! I just can’t seem to get the rest of the way over. Maybe after this growth spurt I will be able to push myself the rest of the way over. Mommy has a video of me during tummy time, I’ll have her upload it.

Happy 50-somethingth Birthday Dad!

I was looking through the photos on my hard drive today to find an appropriate one for my Dad’s birthday post, instead I found this one. My very first thought was “YES! A mullet! Wait, my dad had a mullet? I don’t remember that…” It must have been when we lived in North Carolina. I have lived in four countries (and two states) because of my Dad’s work and though the constant moving was hard at times I am glad I had a chance to travel the world with him.

Anyhow, with that potentially embarrassing photo out of the way (though I like mullets), this is a more recent photo:

The last time I saw my dad was during our handfasting last summer. My brother and father live in the UAE, where he does consulting (my brother is a lawyer.) I get to see lots of photos of his various adventures over there in his blog. My family is a very complicated topic and growing up with my dad wasn’t always a walk in the park but I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt I am certainly daddy’s little girl.

I can’t find too many photos of us together which is a bit funny because we spent a lot of time together when I was growing up. He usually was taking more photos of me on our outings though. He took this one of me at an abandoned church in Spain we were exploring one weekend. It was a pain to get into, he had to hoist me into a hole in the second floor. We both have a cat like curiosity (and luckily 9 lives it seems) as well as a passion for history and the outdoors. This picture reminds me of the time we rock climbed together in the south of France.

He also took this one of me at a festival of St. George (he also paid for that dye job.) I think this was the same year we got our ears pierced together. Actually repierced for both of us since Mr. Mullet up there had an ear piercing before we moved to France. Father daughter piercing outing, some people find it weird but I think it is pretty sweet. We also went to heavy metal concerts together and ran together at Correfoc. Unfortunately I can’t talk him into the joint tattooing session… but you can’t have it all!

Because of the distance and cost of travel we don’t get to see each other much anymore, adult life does this I suppose. He was at Michael and my handfasting last summer, which was awesome and I figured it would be a couple years a least before he came again… but he is coming to visit at the beginning of August! I am looking forward to him meeting Damian for the first time.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.

Spokane Valley is on fire

Michael and I have been fixated on channel 2, I hope everyone got out of the homes safely and that the firefighters stay safe too.

Hello fire season (and the arson psychopaths that come with it…)

SPOKANE VALLEY — Fire crews are battling a fire that is spreading east on the outskirts of the Dishman Hills area. (read more…)

We had our handfasting in the Dishman Hills Conservation Area if that puts it into perspective for anyone. Guesstimating using google maps it is about 3 miles from our place but it is burning in the opposite direction. They have evacuated 15 blocks west of Dishman-Mica so far and that area keeps growing. The fire is spreading really fast, it is 500+acres at the moment (edit: now its 1000 acres.)

There is also a three alarm fire at the Ugly Duck too, which is in Spokane. It is a furniture liquidator, that one was arson (…again, this would be the seventh arson there in the past 4 years.)

We have a red flag warning today so this is really the worst time possible for these fires (and the others burning in the Inland Northwest.) The winds are starting to die down enough that they can get a tanker plane up to help get the Dishman fire under control though. It is amazing seeing the pine trees go up like match sticks, and homes too (we just watched one burn down in under 10 minutes.) It is so important for people to make defensible space around there homes, if you don’t the firefighters will have a tough time protecting your home if they can at all.