Sarah and Jenn Visit! (Day Two)

On Thursday morning, we (Sarah, Jenn, Graeme, and I) packed up our beach supplies and drove to Jupiter Beach. Graeme happily dragged his t-ball set out to the sand and we played some strange toddler versions of baseball and catch with him when we weren't standing knee-deep in the surf, burying our sunburned feet in the sand, or adding to our truly monumental seashell collections.

The sea has incredible powers of healing. The hours we spent on the beach during the visit scoured all the negative thoughts, the shadowed self-images, the anxiety and darkness clear out of my soul. The sun warms bone deep, the sea air enlivens my lungs, my heart, the sand gently smooths my skin, the sound of the surf and the wind gently block out every other thought. I can't explain it. It is so immense, so unceasing, so calming--like falling into the night sky, vast and silent, wild and watching, and having its presence whittle down, by comparison, every little trouble and pain and worry until they can be shrugged off as unimportant.

After the beach, Graeme fell asleep in the car and we had the chance to drive to Jonathan Dickinson State Park. I stayed in the car (no doubt, playing more Bejeweled) with Graeme while the mermaiden and willow_cabin climbed Hobe Mountain lookout. (If that's a mountain, I'm a mountain goat.)

We drove further into the park, along the banks of the Loxahatchee River. Another thirty minutes or so, and Graeme woke up feeling fussy. We visited a small playground in the park and then hiked for a short toddler jaunt on the Kitching Creek Trail. He perked up a little at the numbered trail markers, claiming he was on "a number hunt" and looking for each in order.

After the park, we drove by like three thrift stores and found them *all* to be closed. (South Florida, the sidewalks roll up in time for the early bird specials at diners.)

At home, we ordered pizzas from Pizza Fusion, an organic, earth-conscious delivery place in my area that has, bless their hearts, a "Very Vegan" pizza. It was an evening of overeating and watching episodes of The Vampire Diaries in my not-subtle bid to win new fans to the show. (Did I succeed? ;D)

All-in-all, a very pleasant outdoorsy day.

Now excuse me as I get to the real point of these posts--the photos! (A zillion more can be found on my Flickr page. Though strangely I don't have many from this particular day.)



( And a couple more under here! )

Sarah and Jenn Visit! (Day Three)

Friday, we were lucky enough to have Daniel acting as a babysitter. We woke up early and headed out, just us girls, to the unbelievable beauty of Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island. It is unlike any other beach I've seen in Florida with water-sculpted limestone forming ledges, caves, and living art pieces right at waters' edge. We arrived at low tide and were able to pick our way through areas that are more-often-than-not underwater. We spent hours meditating, picking our way over (and under) the rocks and taking photographs. It was fucking spectacular. The mad, crazy-beautiful goodness of the earth on display in one place.



( A break for photos...lots of photos. )

We eked every second we could out of it until we had to rush back to get Graeme and allow Daniel to get back to work for the day. With Graeme in the car, I think we did some more mundane things like visit thrift stores (mostly thriftFAIL!) and shiver at Juno Beach together just after twilight. That evening, Daniel's generous babysitting continued so we were able to have dinner at Whole Foods (thank you, vegan hot bar items!) and then go to see Avatar 3D together.

I am still processing the awesomesauce that was Avatar. Everything I've read resonates with me. Yes, this changes film-making and Yes, this is a must-see, and Yes, this is a pagan-hearted movie and Yes, it does remind you powerfully of some other natives v. destructive intruders stories like Pocahontas and Fern Gully. It was all that and far more. It has the same crushingly relevant social commentary of Wall-E and made me forget, against all odds, that I had to pee for three hours. ;) What can I say?? It was heartfelt and sobering and crushing and wonderful.

Sarah and Jenn Visit! (Day Four)

On Saturday, mermaiden and willow_cabin's last day with us in Florida, we scrambled a bit to try and get everything done that we'd missed. In some ways, we failed and the boys (Graeme, Daniel and, even moreso, radshaun) got crushed under the wheels of our getting-it-done-mobile. We needed a teleporter, frankly. And a babysitter for Graeme.

Daniel gamely tagged along with us and entertained Graeme while we visited Juno Beach for a bit of a beach fare-thee-well and toured the sea turtle rehab and release center at the Juno Beach Marinelife Center...aka "The Turtle Place". Now, let me say that the mission of the Marinelife Center is one after my own heart and getting to see their exhibit on sea turtles and walk outside to pay calls on the patients in the hospital's tanks is wonderful, but the gift shop is out-of-this-world. An entire posh little shop filled with everything sea turtle themed that has probably ever been created. Coffee tables, coffee mugs, bath mats, tub toys, jewelry, bags, books, pens, journals, candies--you name it. It is the most fun shopping in the world.

After that, we met back up with Daniel and a cranky-possibly sick-soon to be sleeping baby Graeme in the car and headed to a restaurant nearby for lunch. Graeme was asleep, Daniel and I were debating who would sit outside in the car with him and skip lunch, and in the end we decided to ignore our growling stomachs a little longer and drive about an hour south to a New Age/crystal shop that we'd visited together last year. At this point, Shaun, who'd been trailing behind in his own car like someone following vague clues on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? gave up and bailed and Daniel looked like he wanted to bail out the driver's side door. It was a little rough, to be honest, and even moreso when our GPS drove us to the entirely wrong place.

We eventually arrived at The Crystal Garden in Boynton Beach and spent an hour (okay, probably more) shopping amongst its rooms of books, incense, jewelry, and polished crystals. I picked up some beautiful pieces of pink opal, selenite, ocean jasper, along with a couple others whose names are eluding me right now. Graeme woke up, again, in a terrible mood and he and Daniel both got antsy waiting for us in the car. It wasn't pretty.

We piled back into the car with our purchases and drove, grumpy and half-starved, to Darbster, this awesome little waterfront outdoor vegan bistro in West Palm Beach. The food was outstanding. Delicious. Incredible. Crave-worthy. So that went a long ways towards restoring our sense of center.

After a late lunch, showers, and naps at home Sarah and I drove over to the moonlit Juno Beach for a sort of combo Full Moon esbat/early Imbolc ritual. I'll figure out how to tackle my experience of that in another post, but it was perfect.

This morning (Sunday) I got up at 4:30am and drove the girls to the airport. In another hour or two, I'll be dropping Daniel off at the airport again as well. I have a bit of that empty nest syndrome. Everything is so quiet and still after all the activity and company I've had the past week. What a wonderful, wonderful week it has been. :) <3

Thank you, mermaiden and willow_cabin, for the love and the memories and the many, many, many, many hours spent companionably basking in the wind and water and sun of "my" ocean. :) We love you so much and miss you already. :)






(Graeme took this photo of the girls at Darbster. So sweet.)

January Esbat: A Full Moon Ritual

Sarah's (mermaiden) recent visit and the Full Moon's appearance while she was here, provided us an opportunity to celebrate an esbat together. Other factors conspired to create my favorite sort of ritual environment...that moonlit, deserted beach that I grew into a witch upon. So it was, on Saturday night, that the two of us descended the dune at Juno Beach in time to watch that full moon rising over the dark ocean. We were able to stand barefoot in the surf--rocking with the energetic pull of moon and tides, waves and wind--for a few precious hours. We talked and the Divine talked and the whole natural world around us joined the conversation. I remembered, as I often do at full moons, exactly who I am. I am a priestess, I am a bit of the divine embodied, I am part of that incredible, ever-changing whole. I am.

It was the first day of their visit with overcast skies. That night, as I mentally prepared for ritual, as I stood and relaxed into the cool pull of the tide zone sands, the moon presented only a vague hint of light behind a veil of heavy gray clouds.

We sat and the moon pulled herself slowly out from the clouds, casting a wide pavement of light across the ocean from horizon to shore. In that rippling path, I could See thousands and thousands and thousands of silver-backed fish, little fish of moonlight, and felt their silent, inobtrusive listening. I could feel that one of those many, many magickal fish was waiting on my words--one on Sarah's--and that whatever we said, whatever soul message we had would be born by those fish safely to the heart of the sea. All those moonlit magick fish, that incomprehensibly large ocean, able to hear and hold the secrets, the pain, the experience-of-living of every being that is ever, has ever been embodied. The great cleansing place, the emotional plane itself, pure feeling and Mystery and dark, cocooned rest.

That ocean, that cloudy night sky, the constant cycling whispering rush of it all made maintaining a walking meditative state almost inevitable. I didn't have to journey to the gods I honor, they came to me, and I found myself in that brilliant, brief state where I knew exactly what to say because I wasn't the one saying it. I had so much energy, I could feel it pushing outward past my skin, the layers of me bowing outward, expanding without feeling weightier. I was outside of my normal self-imposed limits. I was having micro-second flashes of knowing, those perfect and ungraspable moments when everything made sense on a Universal level before tumbling away like an elusive rolling shell in the surf.

I was brimming with stillness and certainty.

We chose, with the environment, not to cast a circle. We acknowledged the Elements, the Lord and Lady, and watched the sky as the Moon pulled free from the tangle of clouds. A large circle of light formed among the clouds, a perfect moon-circle cast around us. Sarah bent to collect sea water to anoint me and I did the same. At some point, we walked our separate ways to commune with our own gods and goddesses, to receive our own individual messages in privacy.

I was filled with an uncharacteristic exuberance. I wanted to laugh and leap and throw myself into the waves. I wanted to sing and shriek and run around like a wild woman dragging my skirts through the water. There was such pure joy.

I got to a wide, perfectly planed patch of wet sand. I had no tools but my feet and I was compelled to walk a pentacle of footprints into the sand. I chanted to Isis, the first song I ever wrote to Her, and as I finished the last encompassing circle, turned to find the tide already surging up to cover the edge of it. I stood in the center of my giant pentacle of footprints and sang my heart out to the moon. By the time I was done, all that crazy, cascading energy had drained completely away and I was left feeling hollowed out and whole, still and at peace, perfectly placed in my life. Around me, in every direction, my footsteps had already been filled in and smoothed out to that glass-like surface of the ocean's edge.

My offering, those footsteps, that path I walked in honor of the gods I serve, was accepted and taken into the vastness of the water.

I walked down the beach and reunited with Sarah. There were more quiet moments and words, more singing and a closing of the ritual, but frankly I don't carry much memory of it. I know that the moon shone down on us with the Perfect Love of a doting Mother and I know that everything I needed to clear out and recharge this month, I received.

It was perfect. Perfect love, perfect trust, perfect moment, perfect place, perfect understanding, perfect timing. For just a moment, I wasn't seeing my life through my embodied eyes but through those divine, immortal soul's eyes.