Willow Winterborne September, 2009

*The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds.
This column is dedicated to the Hedgewitches of the planet earth.

September 2009
Harvest Time!!!

It is that profoundly magical season of harvest here in the hedge, and the abundance has amazed me beyond my wildest dreams.
My garden has been a constant source of joy and lessons learned.
The watermelon and cantaloupes, unsown by me, came to life on their own, because we left the seedlings where they sprouted.

It was a teetering balance of my way, and Nature’s way.
In the end, I caved completely and allowed the weeds and plants to grow side by side.
The weeds provided a soft landing spot for the pumpkins and melons, and they had perfect skin as a result.

And as I render these gifts of Nature into usable food products, whole and natural, I am reminded of the lessons of Mabon, and the feasts of Thanksgiving.
My ancestors worked diligently, nearly year round to ensure the food supplies would continue through the long months of winter.
They toiled in their gardens, hung hand-washed clothes on a line, chopped, split and stacked wood for the ever present fires, and canned and dried fresh foods.
As I engage in these activities, even as a modern witch, I am reminded in a deep down cell-remembering way, of these industrious people who came before me. It makes my spirit rejoice to repeat the actions of my foremothers and to feel the satisfaction of having accomplished so vital a task.

In this season of harvest, I am grateful. I am reminded of all I have been blessed with, and all I anticipate to come.
The very act of growing food, harvesting and preserving it is hopeful, and spawns fresh hope when the food is consumed.
It is an opportunity to bless the stores that they might last until the next harvest, and bring needed blessings in the months to come.

Mabon is often referred to as Witch’s Thanksgiving, and for me, that is exactly how I celebrate it. I prepare a feast to celebrate the coming of the dark months of the year, the warmth of our home and the abundance of blessings contained therein.

As well as a time of joy, there is an undeniable sadness associated with this time of year, for me.
When I see a bright yellow school bus, or smell a freshly sharpened number two Ticonderoga pencil I am overcome with a wave of bittersweet nostalgia. A falling leaf; a mud puddle; a ripe orange pumpkin…these things hold a sort of wistful sadness for me.

But again, I am reminded of the time of year. The dying back. Things being cleaned, dismantled, stored for the year. Bright green things turning crisp and brown.
Of course there is sadness. It is Nature at work, and we can feel it stir in us, even before the first leaf falls.

Each year on my path, as I observe and fall into deeper rhythm with the cycles, I have a deeper appreciation for the Natural occurrences that mirror a metaphorical reality. Not a circle, for I never return to the same place again, but a spiral, which allows me to see the places I have visited before, again, with the fresh eyes of new experience.

As we raise our chalices in celebration of the season, and remember the sacrifices which were made in order to bring about not only this harvest, but those to come, may we join together to commit to care for one another. To use our abundance to bless those less fortunate.
To make humanity our business, and to care for those we find along our way.
To simplify our lives so that we have time and energy for the truly important blessings in them; the people we love and who love us.

Happy Witch’s Thanksgiving, and Happy Harvest Season to all!

May your table be heaping;
Your larder quite full;
The blessings you’re reaping,
as Autumn now pulls,
be stacked to your rafters
with plenty to share.
~May the mission we’re after
be one of Care.

Brightest Blessings of the Season

Tags: hedge, home, house, kitchen, nature, witch

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Willow Winterborne May, 2009

*The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds.
This column is dedicated to the Hedgewitches of the planet earth.

May In the Hedge: Be The Mountain

In my study of yoga, I found some underlying principles which are generally Buddhist in nature, that  fascinated me, ever since.

There are 4 basic principles:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Compassion
4. Equinamity

Now, these first 3, I have them licked! I love love in all its many forms. I have no trouble incorporating love into my life, whatsoever.
Joy! What a wonderful gift and blessing, and I engage in active joy all the time.
Compassion- I am empathetic, so comapssion, a no brainer for me.
But when I got to equinamity… I didn’t even know what the word meant.

After looking it up, I wasn’t sure I really knew what it meant, either.

equa·nim·ity (ek’w? nim’? te)

noun
the quality of remaining calm and undisturbed; evenness of mind or temper; composure
(as copied from yourdictionary.com/equinamity)

This is not the same as being in a peaceful place. This is calmness and deep composure, despite the circumstances. No matter what.

The Buddhist description of this state of consciousness is Being the Mountain.
On the mountain, the winds blow fiercely, and the snow falls, sometimes covering the peak for months at a time.
But the mountain never responds, because it knows that all that is meant to be simply is.
The mountain doesn’t complain, or become afraid, even while glaciers might scrape its face away.
The mountain just is, regardless of the conditions.
The mountain enjoys a state of non-sentient equinamity.

Now, as a sentient being, I have considerably more trouble with this concept of equinamity.
I am rather reactive, it turns out.
I tend to fret and to become enflamed and to respond outwardly, as a rule.
So, the idea of being able to truly Be The Mountain is one so alien to my consciousness.

Yet, I am curious about it, and even sense a growing desire to be the mountian.
I have elected to actively explore this concept in my own life, and to use “Be the mountain” as a mantra when things become emotional for me. It is such an easy and basic visualization. Just Be the Mountain.

In my life, I have recently become aware of some serious problems with the folks I hold dear, and the opportunities to practice equinamity have been abundant. Organ transplants, Cancer, and serious addicition have come to call just as the winds and snow call on the mountain. This is my time to practice.

In my case, the ‘winds’ are always accompanied by a physical sensation. A tightening of the chest. An unconscious holding of the breath. My muscles tighten and seem to be bracing for something.
As I become aware of the stress building in my body, I am reminded to recognize the sensation, and underlying emotions and then release them through the breath.
In this way, I give myself permission to notice my thoughts and feelings, and then allow the sensations of response to pass from me.
I am not holding my stress in parts of my body which then suffer physically for it.

To practice equinamity is not to be unaware, or in denial, about the conditions. It is to acknowledge the conditions and then to allow the response to them flow out again, like the tide.
I am, clearly, no expert, and am just barely even aware of the full impact of what equinamity can do for a life if applied mindfully. However, I do know that equinamity has come to me as a tool to utilize in my personal practice, as I begin to understand it.

I know many of us have issues in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones which can stress us out to the point of madness. I pray that the gift of equinamity can help to bring about a deep calm in your lives, as you work through them.
Just keeping the visual of the mountain in mind can help remind us to breathe and release, when stress begins to mount in us.

If there are those who have walked a Path that has allowed them to master equinamity, I would love to hear from you, as I am always excited to learn from the experience of others.

Brightest May Blessings to you all!

Tags: buddhism, hedge, witch

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Willow Winterborne November, 2008

*The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds.
This column is dedicated to the Hedgewitches of the planet earth.

Gratitude: Living Thanksgiving Every Day

Gratitude. The words conjures many images. Saying thanks, in a heartfelt way, when someone does us a kindness. Feeling comforted by the fact that we have or are something we value. The theme of Thanksgiving.
Gratitude is what separates folks who appreciate what they have from those who are never satisfied.
I know this is my personal soap-box, and to those who have endured numerous columns devoted to the subject, I offer you only my request for tolerance, as I feel it is important and underrated enough to mention it all again.

It is my belief that gratitude is much more than a feeling of thanks. I believe that in order to truly understand life’s many miracles (some of which feel good, and some which wring out our very bodies, minds and spirits) we must not only experience gratitude, periodically and contingent on a circumstance, but to live in a state of mindful gratitude. Always.

Now this is easier said than done.

I came from the womb a “glass half empty” sort of person. Always prone to recognize what I don’t have rather than to be mindful of what I do.
So, it is rather ironic this would become my platform for change in the Universe. I’m sure the gods get a big kick out of my preaching the gospel of gratitude. Considering who I was when they got me, this life!

But a very wise and dear friend suggested the Gratitude Journal to me, and that was the birthplace of my own gratitude.
Her advice was to take time at the end of each day and write down 5 things I was grateful for. She even gave me a darling little notebook to write them all down in.
Now, I being the cynical analyst I am genetically programmed to be, I laughed hysterically (not to her face, of course. I love her, however mad I thought her at that moment) and chucked the book into a drawer where it sat for the better part of 5 years, not a single word or mark in it.

But her words kept coming back to me. Oddly, not when I felt I had something to be grateful for, but when the whole world seemed to be swirling right down the toilet.

Being a sarcastic person by nature, the icky voice inside my head would say, as I was weeping due to some crushing loss, “So, what are your 5 things to be grateful for? …hee hee hee”.

One particularly bad day, I took the icky voice up on its offer, and began screaming at the top of my lungs “I am grateful for 5 things. 4 limbs and a head that still work. Only things that work! So Hah!”.
It didn’t occur to me in that moment that I had already begun to cultivate gratitude.

From that day on, I began to use the screaming my gratitude technique when I didn’t have what I needed. It was 4 limbs and a head for a long time, but I did have cause to remember how my life had been before, and how much better it was now.
Suddenly, I had a whole slew of things to be grateful for.

No one at my house hurts my body or my spirit.
I have a safe place to sleep tonight.
I ate today.
I put on clean fresh clothes this morning.
I have people in my life who care for me.

None of those things had been true for years before that, but now they were all true. My experiences of awfulness had given me something to compare things to when it got out of hand.
Now, granted, these aren’t major accomplishments or accolades. I wasn’t grateful to have been voted Wife of the Year or for having won a million dollars in the lotto. But I had things to be grateful for, and I was appreciative of each and every one.

One day, the list grew to way more than 5 things. When I got to 5, there were more, so I kept going.
Pretty soon, I wasn’t screaming at the top of my lungs, in crisis, but being quietly aware that I had cause to be grateful.
After a while, it became my mission to find something to be grateful for in every bad situation. My motto became “It could always be worse” (a far cry from little miss glass-half-empty).
Eventually, I began to seek out things to be grateful for, even when I wasn’t in crisis.
I began to think on all that I had on a regular basis. I began the day with a word of thanksgiving for all I already had, before my mind had a chance to tally up all the things I wanted but didn’t have, for the day.

I became one of those people who “always sees the bright side” (Imagine that! And, again, the gods chuckle with ironic mirth)

When the plane is delayed, I say “I am happy they are taking an extra hard look at it, so it will be safe. We will leave when we are meant to”.
When the money runs out before the next paycheck, I feel, “we are not ‘broke’. We are between money. More will be along shortly, and probably just in the nick of time“.
(it always is, too, by the way)

The more mindfully grateful I became, the more my life began to resemble what I really wanted from it.
As like always attracts like, my gratitude for all I had, began to attract more things to be grateful for.

I began to see that the most powerful first step in manifesting new blessings was to mindfully take stock of all I already had. Not to identify what was missing.

I believe that we, as humans, are not only capable of living our gratitude, but are best served by it.
We demonstrate our faith and trust in the Universe and its plan we don’t always have a clear concept of.
We are a light to others who struggle along their way.
We add power and energy to our mundane and magical workings because we are grateful, not just for what we ask for and expect to receive, but also for all we have already been given.

Gratitude is a direct line to the Divine through which we feel their nurturing, provision and connectedness.

I ask, this season of Thanksgiving, as you tuck in to a sumptuous meal shared with friends and loved ones, that you take a moment to count your blessings, and ask to be reminded regularly of all you have been blessed with.

Oh, and, can somebody pass the pumpkin pie?!

Brightest Blessings of the Season,
Willow

Tags: crone, hedge, kitchen

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