A Thanks To An Internet Traveler

I wanted to give a thank you to someone who gave me a nice little tip after they stumbled onto my blog by accident.  And also to share the tip with others.  

 

Yes, I live in the age of technology, currently running a blog... and did not consider the potential usefulness of a Kindle...I don't own one right now, but it seems like a very good idea and I might have to look into getting one after all.  (Yes you heard me Luna, after all the talk of "books should be books, and smell like books and feel like books..." I get it, super useful, you're right. LOL)

Well that's all for now.  Thanks again Kat. 

Nina Part 4: A Midnight Walk

Nina and I had a good talk last night.  I got to talk about my worries about what she thinks about me, and she got to ask me more questions.  I think we have a much better understanding on this now.  Mostly she was confused about magik, and what I could or had to do; which gave me a chance to explain a few things to her,  I am not currently practicing magik yet, but even if I was I know she doesn't want it and I would never do anything involving her.  So she knows I have that respect for her.

How to handle this has been a big question for me, normally for a question like this I would do some tarot spreads to get some insight on it.  I didn't feel right doing a tarot reading on this particular situation because I knew she didn't like tarot.  So even though it left me feeling in the dark, I felt I needed to respect that as a boundary.

Simply put, I feel much better about her opinion of me, and she now knows that she can ask me anything she wants to ask me, and that I am not going to be doing anything involving her in my practice.    

Adrian: I Can't Think Of A Catchy Title For This One

Not long after I started reading about wicca, I started spending more time talking to Adrian, before we had hung out a lot but not really talked as much.  I had just started trying meditation (something I am still not great at) and I remembered him saying something about his meditation.  So I asked him if he had any tips.  That's when I found out that he had studied wicca before but wasn't anymore, he still remembered some things from it.  He has become one of my friends that I can openly talk about what I'm struggling with or where I am at religion-wise.   

Adrian is the one that gave me a lot of help (and by that, I mean listened to me stress out incessantly) with the issue of how much if any, to tell my parents.  When I first asked him what he thought, he said, "family is everything, do what you think is best for them".  And while that didn't answer my question right away, it did get me thinking on the pro's and con's of this decision.  I'm not worried about them disowning me, I know they love me, I'm just not sure they like me.  I had to decided if the pro's to telling them were going to benefit them or just me.  Likewise I had to think about if the con's were just something I was hiding behind to avoid conflict. 

He listened to me agonize over this decision for a good 4 months.  (That's not to downplay other people's help and support, but you have to give credit where credit is due.)  In the end, my decision came from a compilation of his advice to do what would be best for them; and others advice that it was up to me, it was my business what I believe, and it all depends on how much them knowing/not knowing meant to me.  He was also the one that reminded me that, if I decided not to tell them just yet it didn't mean I could never tell them if the time felt right.

Aside from that specific situational, he has also shared with me what he remembers from when he studied, some of his experiences from that time, and keeps an eye out for resources I might find useful. 

Luna: Neighbor & Cohort

Luna is one of the people who has helped me a lot, it's really comforting to have someone so close by who is also in the process of learning.  I won't say we study together, we share information and talk a lot about what we are reading and trying.  We started reading about wicca for mostly the same reasons, and had a lot of the same reasons for why we hadn't considered learning more about it before.  The tricky part is that one of the things that drew us to wicca after the first book was while there are some guidelines, there is so much personalization to how you practice and experience wicca.  Because of this, we both try very hard not to influence each other too much.

An example of this is in the wiccan names.  I found my name fairly quickly, but Luna and I have decided not to share our names until we had both decided on them.  We both agreed that we didn't want to influence each others choice that way; we think it would be too much of a temptation to change around because we had some elements too alike or too different. 

Also, and I envy her for this, Luna is a much better researcher than I am, don't get me wrong I learn a lot from the books I read and I'm a quick reader; but I learn so much better when I am physically involved in something.  Luna can research something and have a better idea of how it would go for her, whereas I have to trial test the things I'm reading about to see how suited I am to it.  It's not that one way is better than the other, we just have a different learning and practicing style.  We also didn't want to study in such a way that would make on or the other feel rushed.

When she finds a good book she lets me borrow it and I do the same, we take shopping trips together (mostly through antique stores) and keep an eye out for things we think each other might like when we are shopping alone.  For my birthday last year Luna got me a miniature wind-chime that I use as a bell since it's hung above my altar, and this year we were in an antique shop when she found a bell, and I bought it for her as a gift.

It's nice to have someone to give and take with in this way.   It's been hard lately because she got a new job and our hours have been off.  She works an early shift, and I am on a late shift.  She's probably reading this...so she can add to or correct as she pleases.