Kally's Cauldron

It's been a long time coming, but I finally sat down last week and started learning the art of meditation. You'd think, having been on this Pagan path of mine for a year and a half now, I'd have sat down at least ONCE and tried to meditate, but alas, it has never been.

Not to say that I haven't been MEANING to, but I always found a million and one excuses NOT to. Too busy, too tired etc etc. But I finally said, enough is enough and got off my butt (or rather, ON it) and listened to a podcast on how to meditate (which included a short guided meditation at the end). So far, I suck pretty bad at it. "Quieting my mind" has never been something I'm good at. But I kept trying and taking notes in my meditation journal. So far I've learned that silence is not good for me. At least following a guided meditation or having some music playing gives me somewhere to bring my focus...when it's too quiet, my mind can do nothing but wander. So I figured I'll practice with "noise" and once I have that down, we'll work on silence.

All that being said, a friend of mine posted on her Facebook status today about this Sadhana which will take place for 40 days. The pranayama (breathing) was challenging but well worth the effort and the chant was just beautiful. I felt incredibly at peace and empowered after performing this meditation and I'm really looking forward to the next 39 days!! If you have any interest in Kundalini Yoga, it's well worth checking out!

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about where I want this blog to go. I've contemplated making it solely about my spiritual path and Paganism. Truth be told, the domestic arts is a relatively new area for me (I really started focusing on them when I was expecting Munchkin) and so that was part of the reason I created my second blog. Kind of a way of laughing along my journey of "housewifedom" (I think I made that word up LOL).

I started following Paganism after Munchkin was born and it just seemed natural to fall into kitchen witchery. In that sense, the two blogs are related, but I liked the idea of keeping them separate because each represents a different side of my personality. Here would be thoughts, questions and discussions about different areas of my spirituality (not limited to the kitchen) and the other would be light-hearted snippets from my everyday life.

I had also thought about a way of merging the two but couldn't really figure out a way of doing it that I liked. Time will tell......

Hello my dear readers! I just wanted to let you know that there's going to be a few changes around here. I'll have a new grab button very soon so I would love if anyone interested would take it, and add me to their button exchange.

I read so many fabulous blogs but being something of a perfectionist, I don't like having them all just sitting at the bottom of my page, so I've created a page solely for buttons. I haven't moved any yet but you'll see that adjustment over the next few days.

I've started a new Mommy blog (I know, I know, like the world needs more of those!) so if you know anyone interested, let them know about Domesticated (button coming soon!)

Lastly, my hubby is starting up his own blog. Dinner: Interrupted will feature regular recipe posts where he'll cook, eat and then review all sorts of yummy entree's while trying to avoid letting it burn when the baby cries!

Wow, I know this post is way late but figured I should probably get it up now that I have a few moments to do so. We had a lovely Imbolc (despite the ridiculous amount of snow). We enjoyed a small family ritual and then a super yummy dinner.




We loosely followed this ritual (Munchkin had put his coins in his baby potato head so it became a shaker LOL)




For dinner we enjoyed chicken chili. This was the first time I made it and I definitely think we'll be adding it to our list of favourites.




For dunking I made some Irish Soda Bread. I LOVE this bread but you need to eat it quickly, otherwise it becomes something of a weapon.




Finally, dessert was no-bake cheesecakes. These were good although they didn't solidify as well as I would have liked.

Well, today we celebrate Imbolc. This time of year, we look forward to spring. I have to admit, it was hard to think of spring with our first major snowstorm of the year brewing.








These were both taken this morning. We've gotten A LOT more snow since then! We did, however, have a really enjoyable Imbolc. I'll share tomorrow!

I've been a solitary practitioner pretty much from the get-go. At first it was more out of necessity as I had yet to make contact with the Pagan community. After I discovered the community, I attended one of their bi-monthly brunches. It was ok...I had already met one of the better known members of the community over coffee. Plus I had made contact with another Pagan stay-at-home-mom so she attended as well. Everyone else just kind of nodded at my presence. That didn't bother me, it's just sort of the way of things when there's a newbie in the crowd.
While eating breakfast that morning, the woman beside me attempted to engage me in conversation. I was thankful and readily answered question while asking a few of my own. Post conversation, a few other members of the community came up and started chatting. Nothing wrong with that of course. Until they started laying into Christians like there was no tomorrow!! I know, I know, the Church has hurt a lot of people, but can't we get past that and at the very least, just ignore them? There didn't seem to be any specific catalyst...just seems that Pagan conversation has to involve trashing Christians. Irritation hardly described what I felt at that moment. I didn't say anything of course...it seemed kind of unwise to trash talk one of the more senior members of the community, especially considering how new I was, but I've never gone back.
Why does it seem to be that disliking Christians is a prerequisite for being Pagan? I admit, they can get on my nerves but you always get kooks in every religion so I certainly don't feel the necessity to single out Christianity. Did I miss a memo somewhere??