What did you learn today...?¿

[ita]

Yes make up with a good an hornest sorry,and treat your loved one with somthing you know he/ she likes...

[Frog]

This morning I learnt that it's important to stand up for what you believe.... but be practical about what's achievable.

(a rough morning, where 3 weeks into developing an incredibly complex manual, one of the "leading light" managers has a *bright idea* which will result in the need to start 90% from scratch....  grrr!)


I learnt yesterday that quietly saying the Druid's prayer and the Druid Prayer for Peace work a whole lot better than just counting to 10!  :)

[Wren MacDonald]

What I learned yesterday:  that the world is a smaller place than I thought it was, and things seem far away that really aren't.  :D


Wren ^.~*

[Mariamne]

Today I've learned to keep silent until a fanatic finished his abusive speach, and then to answer with one sentence in a neutral way that anulates the misguided argumentation. Hard lesson.

with love
Marimane

[Sorcha A. R.]

Today I learned that the rain sounds sweetest combined with the silence of the library, but it is only when you step outside that you learn both the beautiful and the harsh truth about rain.  

Experience can teach us more than books ever will.  Sometimes we must let ourselves be swept away by life's experiences if we are to truly learn.  That is something I must try to remember.

[wyeuro]

this might take some telling but i'll try to be succinct.  and it starts sad.  there's a big water tank cut down from three thousand gallons just outside the back fence of our yard and we keep it filled with water so that our goats and kangaroos and other wildlife can drink from it.  its about two and a half feet high. each evening at around sunset up to a dozen or so mother kangaroos and their joeys in their pouches and some dads come in and hang round the waterhole exchanging gossip like people at a pub, while the joeys play, hopping in and out of the mothers' pouches and sparring up to each other and doing wheelies in the sand.  last night just as the sun went down and before the kangaroos came in, we found a little joey just ready to leave the pouch, drowned in this pond.  

this had never happened before. kangaroos are very emotional animals and the misery still surrounding the pond was palpable.  we took the joey out and put water in a bucket for the joeys who couldn't reach the big tank so that it would not happen again.  

but my little dog demanded the carcase and i couldn't see that wasting what was obviously very good meat would help the situation.  i respect my dog and had no reason to refuse her request. it seemed almost an insult to it to leave it out on the flat to rot.  i do the butchering on this farm so i left it until this morning when before it got too hot (which it soon did) i quickly skinned and gutted it and reduced it to small portions which i put on a rack to dry in the sun. (kangaroo cherokee )

now i butcher goats fairly frequently, and over the years i've got to know my way round the inside of a goat pretty well.  it took years. first i had to deal with my squeamishness about benefitting from the death, and butchering a goat i had known and loved since its birth, and learn to appreciate the need to respect the planetary foodweb, which is one of our planet's vital systems, and the goats' place in it, and mine as a predatory omnivore.  

then i had to deal with disgust at the substances i found inside the goat, and that took even longer, even though i was making conscious efforts to see all parts as wholesome and good.  then i had to deal with the smells, and the knowledge that i was dealing intimately with the 'rude parts', ashamed of being embarrassed about that.  i'm still working at it, i admit.  

same with chooks.  

but this kangaroo was different.  i had his skin off and was well under way when it dawned on me that i was feeling pretty good for a killing day, and then i noticed that the meat was beautiful, truly wholesome and good to look at, and the smell was appetising and clean.  the gut was clean, and its lines, colours, patterns and textures were beautiful.  the trouble i have feeling okay about goat innards just wasn't there.  

and this is what i learned:  our culture has for generations cultivated disgust concerning guts and their functions, and the urino-genital tract and its functions, the mucous membranes and their exudates and functions, and even blood, until we have effectively 'enchanted' the animals we eat, and undoubtedly ourselves too, in this adverse way.  it isn't my lack of enlightenment that makes it hard for me to find the goats gizzards non-repulsive, it's this enchantment, actually affecting every goat that's born, right to the deva level.  

for thousands of years the aborigines have killed and butchered kangaroos respectfully, with no shame or disgust about any of its parts. the reuslt is this purity and cleanliness and actual beauty, which is associate with the radiant, vibrant health that wild creatures so often have.

now it seems to me, and the famous gypsy herballist juliette de bairacli levi points out, that wild animals enjoy much better health than domesticated ones do, even when they're well fed.  she mentions unnatural conditions as the reason for this but i'll add to that that it's also the sick, harmful magic resulting from the cultivating of disgust and shame.  

the gut, its contents and its functions of all animals including human beings is 'hexed' disgusting, and 'fetched' to disgustingness, such that it finally succumbs and complies with what amounts to a magical command to produce disgusting smells.  but that disgustingness isn't natural in a healthy animal. healthy animals are sweet and beautiful and pleasant smelling right down to their chyle and dung. so animals fetched to disgustingness are fetched to the poor health that produces disgustingness.  

there, now that's what i learned today.  from a tragedy, a lesson well worth the trouble of learning.  

by the way, peggy enjoyed her part in it. she heartily agreed that every particle of that joey is pleasant through and through!

wyverne /|\

[raibeartboid]

Yesterday i learned that children are wonderful, they were all dressed up last nite and were going round the streets, chapping the doors, and ours of course, my partner and i were dressed up to meet them, me in my robes and willow with her cloak and pointy hat, we spent the whole day making tablet, toffee apples and other lovley stuff, to see their faces when they come in and see the house all decorated, with pumpkins and cauldrens, staffs and bessoms, it was fantastic, and i learned that i shouldn't be such an old grumpy sod  lol.

[Meaig]

I apologise for the length of this post in advance.  :)

I learned something important yesterday, or rather last night.  As a person I have always had a tendancy to try and escape change, even when it's required, to fear it - I have become, you might say, a slave to nostalgia and the past to the point where I have allowed it to rule my thoughts and actions.

I love Samhain, it's one of my favourite times of the years.  Normally I decorate the house, carve our pumpkins, buy lots of goodies and relish in getting our children dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating.  Now my children are growing up, as are the other children in the small circle of houses where we live.  My eldest decided not to dress up as she feels she is too old for such things, so that left my little one.

In total, only four children visited our area and my house, including my own child.  I wandered around outside as I watched over my daughter and her little friend, feeling dejected and disappointed, hating the change, mourning for the days when the area was alive with the sounds of excited children.  

Suddenly my little one grabbed my hand and squealed with excitement.  "Oh Mum, LOOK!"  She pointed up into the sky.  The clouds had broken and the moon shone through in all her beauty, shrouded with a faint haze of red and gold reflecting off the clouds.  My little girl's face shone with delight and she whispered "Now that's real magic".  She's seven years old, by the way.

In that moment, my mood broke and I felt the same rush of joy that I always have on Samhain.  We spent the rest of the night lighting sparklers, telling ghost stories and enjoying the bounty from their trick-or-treating.  When I tucked my daughter in she said it had been the best Samhain ever.

What did I learn?  That I must learn to let go of the past - I don't have to forget it or allow it to rule me, but I should embrace it as a part of who I am.  That it shouldn't be mourned, but celebrated.  That I should try, even for a few minutes every day, to try and see through the eyes of a child again, to love and appreciate what we have right here, right now.  To LEARN from it, not fear it.

I feel that the Great Mother had had enough of my self-pitying nonsense and decided to open my eyes using the person I love most in the World as her conduit, my beautiful daughter.  Today I feel joyful, refreshed and throughly blessed.  Today I read my signature here, the words of Nede mac Adne, and his words have a special resonance  

[FaerieLady]

I learned that I am not quite over the past.

Even though I thought I mastered it and moved beyond it, there comes a time when you look back and those times and situations and realize that those feelings are unresolved. I have still let them have the power to manipulate my emotions, instead of taking back that power for myself.

I also learned that one can have many heavy thoughts while eating Reese's Pieces.  :D

[radgareb]

Today I learned the translation to the songs Figlio Perduto and Hijo de la Luna. Very Interesting stuff!!!

[BadgerWomyn]

Today I learned (and by the way, it is still Nov. 19 to me as I have yet to go to bed) that sometimes, even when one's partner demands something stop because they don't want to deal with it anymore, one must give in to what is good for oneself.
I have walked the christian path for almost seven years to please my husband.  I have never stopped hearing the Cry of the Lady and the Call of the Lord.  I have fought and fought to stay on the path my husband wants me on.  
I can't stay on it anymore.  
I believe that the poem written on one of the main pages to this website wraps up Christianity and Paganism in a way that I cannot, that Christ WOULD speak with Merlynn, and Bless him, and that Merlynn would Bless Christ as well.
Gonna have to look into the Druid courses....and take them if it isn't too 'spensive.

Blessings Bright,
BadgerWomyn

[Woodland Spirit]

I suffer with a lack of inner confidence and self esteem built up over many years of... well, lots of things.  :adrift:  I try to teach myself to feel better about me. Today I looked in the mirror and thought, "youre not so bad, you know" so I guess I am learning - one day at a time - to not be so hard on myself.  :fly:

[Soulsearching]

Today I learned that no matter how much I may want it some people never change, but it is not my right to change them, nor is it my right to judge them. It is however my responsibility to change my self for the better and to stick by my beliefs and do right by them.

[Moira Rhydd]

Yesterday I learned that a self-indulgent little nap in the afternoon doesn't really spoil my "appetite" for a long and good night's sleep!  There are days when the lessons are blessedly simple!!  

[Windsong]

I learned that it's actually alot of fun just to be me!

Windsong

[Ra3vyn]

Today I learned not to worry so much, I end up driving myself and everyone else mad with it.
Try to keep it down to worrying when most necessary and enjoy the in-between times,
drawing peace from those wonderful things around me that offer it.

[Frog]

Today I learned about "hold on tightly, let go lightly" when, after managin to successfully co-ordinate 4 meetings with senior managers this week and actually make some progress on my projects.... I was told (at lunchtime) that for the rest of the week I'll be on training at another location.... so will need to reschedule all the meetings I had for this week...  :cry:

[Aarondel]

I learned today that respect is earned and no matter how far away you might think the old ones are away from you, they are actually quite close...

[unicawn]

Today, I learned that after all the challenges are complete and tasks done...and finally there is no deadline to meet or something that must be done...it's really boring!

And that's why housework got invented, because having nothing to be done is boring!

[yoja]

yesterday I learnt that sometimes telling someone else's story is better than telling your own.