Zucchini muffin from the Farmers' Market. Oh yeah. It's squishy, has cinnamon and sugar on top, and best of all, I can actually taste the zucchini, which gives it a very fresh and light taste. Nom nom nom.

Hmmm, maybe I can make my own sometime.

Baby Ferret Webcam!

A black-footed ferret at the National Zoo had a kit, and now you can watch them. (Scroll down the page for the FerretCam.) The baby seems more active than the mom during the day.

*squees*

I think there are stages to getting to know a place kind of like in a relationship. Specifically, New Relationship Energy and Old Relationship Energy. The NRE-equivalent is first going to a place and, well, falling in love. Everything is spiffy and new. Eventually, there's familiarity and less, "Oh holy crap! *Another* Gothic Revival-ish house! Squee!" But then...once there's a comfort level in general, one can settle in and begin to notice details again from a perspective of *knowing* the area.

At the moment, I still have a fair bit of NRE for my neighborhood, and a ton for Chicago in general. I've been here for almost a month and sometimes that fact is still surprising. :)

All three kittehs are on the bed, and they're *not even hissing*.

Whoa.

Today is World Fair Trade Day, and this year's theme is Fair Trade + Ecology.

Stuff to check out:
Louisville:
Heine Brothers
Just Creations

Peoria:
Global Village

Chicago:
Chicago Fair Trade

General:
Fair Trade Certified

The weather channel says it's currently *63 degrees* outside. Can we say lunch on my balcony? Oh yeah!

(And it's supposed to go to *67* tomorrow. Freaky! There shall be much walking.)

(Go figure.)

There's a quote I've come across a few times, about any person who wants a leadership position being unsuitable for it. (That's not it exactly, obviously.) And I think that's somehow become my default assumption - or at least that there should be this sort of resigned "Oh, if I *have* to, ok - see how reluctant I am - please put the yellow robe on me at swordpoint, thanks." (The last bit being a reference to a Chinese emperor - T'ang dynasty maybe? Sheesh I'm vague in my references tonight.) The problem with this attitude is, at least in me, it makes *genuine* reluctance hard to pick out. "Oh, I *should* help organize public rituals - hmmm, something just exploded." (To be fair, I did honestly want to at first, and mostly figured out the reluctance afterwards.)

Wanting to run/organize/lead/have some sort of office can be a "ooh shiny power!" thing, but I think it can be something else. It can be knowing that something needs to be done or that you have skills for a particular role. You might be the one who had the idea. It could be *gasp* taking responsibility.

(Which comes back to a discussion we had on the Cauldron about warrior paths and this sort of thing. "Doing what is necessary" - yeah, that.)

I’ve known You for a long time,
I think
or perhaps just Your works
growing up “with my nose in a book”
gladly learning – teaching came later
at that intersection where ambition meets voice
and I said I was betrayed
I didn’t understand
that knowledge isn’t a competition
not a relentless treadmill
not stomachaches when math is mentioned
but beauty and wisdom
in the bones
filtered through to speech
born in silence and remaking the world.

I was reading a discussion of synaesthesia recently and remarked that I wasn't synaesthetic - I just listened with my body and my feet.

(Sounds a little crazy, but it's my best description of how I pay attention to place and space. English doesn't seem to have good words for the body senses.)

Tonight I remembered why I do - I'm a dancer, of course. It's been awhile since I've properly performed, but I dance a lot anyway. In ritual, for myself, hopefully in a goth club soon (yep, you read that one right)...

I'm trying to get in the habit of dancing more as a winter substitute for lots of walking outside. So there will be more on this, definitely.

(Nothing like writing poems at work...

I wrote Hermes a poem asking Him to help me
with my computer issues - now that they seem to be
resolved, a thank you is only polite. :))



All praise to Hermes
From these winding corridors
Branching links of knowledge
and trickery
Access and guide
Road in the distanceless
Opener of the way
and restorer of connections -
thank you!

"Go HERE to read all about it but, LJ will give each of us a $30 gift certificate if we send an email requesting it. The certificate is to be spent at DonorsChoose.org to help K-12 grade teachers with their special school needs. The teachers list their needs and you get to choose which to fund.

Hurry! This ends on October 1st.
And please pass the word along, too."

(Edited to add link)

This LOL wins an entire internet. Or perhaps Matrix. :)

(I haven't read Spook County yet - alas!)

We came spiraling down the path
Guided by the right information,
this time.
From car to bus to home
in the nick of time
we arrived
Tracing our way
from secrets and magic
along the street of curry (and others)
to hotels upon hotels
Faster than we hoped -
Hermes, thank you.

I got off of work early today and had a good long walk. I no longer feel like a lump, and my legs are tired - yay.

It's been gorgeous lately - sunny and cooler with perfect blue skies. Fall is definitely on its way. I realized that what really makes it feel like fall to me isn't the temperatures, although that's part of it - it's something in the angle of the light. Oh, and the shorter days. One of these days I'll be seeing sunrises before work. :)

Today I'm celebrating the Anelisseia ("Unrolling of the Scrolls"), the (Neos) Alexandrian festival of Thoth and Hermes Logios. Of course, I'm all about that. Here's part of my bibliomancy result (which was "Pastoral" by Pablo Neruda - another bit is the title of this entry):

I know and I know it: but here by the water
in the crackle and flare of cicadas
I must wait for myself, as they wait for me there

And for discussion: Words. Do you like them, do you find them powerful, do you find they get in the way? All of the above, none of the above, third (fourth, fifth) road in between? What are words to you?

Blessed Lamma/Lughnasadh/Feast of the Lion-Serpent!

And to those who wish to celebrate it, Happy (current) Departmentversary! *dances* Thank you all. A true harvest, indeed.

(Incidentally, I now have most of the relevant Departmental entries tagged - at least the ones after October '05. There are some from the very beginning of my journal in there too - quite a jump. :) )

There was a thread on the Cauldron about the basic mindset of one's religion. I posted ones for the parts of my paths that I listed in my profile: Eclectic/NeoWicca, Feri Seeker, Thelemite. And then I took a leap and posted this:

"And - the one that's been around the longest for me, yet I'm just starting to talk about it more and extrapolate a varied set of group practices into individual practice. It's not a religion, but it is a really important part of my path (and the group commonality comes from shared approach).

"Departmental - Learn. Teach. The wisdom you carry grows stagnant if it isn't shared. Take responsibility. Be honest with yourself and others. Find your own path - help others on theirs if you can. Communicate. Branch out. Think. Seek mystery. Move between worlds. Be courageous. And keep a sense of humor.

"Mindsets of the currents I work with/am part of within the Department (the above are some of the basics; these are the permutations): Liminality should be respected. Remember reciprocity. Step into your power. The process is the point, not the end result. Awkwardness is ok. Transformation is beautiful. Dialogue with power. Look at the big picture. Remember that emotion and passion aren't separate from rationality and intellectualism. Take responsibility for your destiny. (Totally ganked the phrasing of that last bit from LibCraft - it's a good way to put something I've thought about for awhile.) Acknowledge your ambitions and work with them in a healthy way while respecting others. And again, learn and teach and learn with others and remember that you'll be doing this all your life, and this is a good thing. (Slightly ganked from the first conversation I had with my eventually-beloved.)

"A lot of Departmental stuff has been filtered through Feri and Thelema, or at least influenced by it. Generally, this happened because something new I learned really resonated with old stuff.

Ok, I need to update my profile now - I've been acknowledging Departmental stuff as part of my path for awhile, just not on here.

I welcome questions, since I'm really just starting to poke at this as a semi-coherent whole, to take instinct and Will and "accidentally true things" and make them into a framework."

So my profile on the Cauldron now says, "Departmental; Eclectic/NeoWiccan, Feri Student, Thelemite". I love semicolons. (And then there is my avatar, which is the FitzRandolph gates at Princeton, and then it says "My path is an omelet." :) )

I wrote "The wisdom you carry grows stagnant if it isn't shared", and then really looked at it. The image is of water, of course, and very Feri. The flow of Passion on the Iron Pentacle shading up to Wisdom on the Pearl. Yeah.

And I mean it about welcoming questions. I know I can be really cryptic, and I'm trying to work on that. I do have the words. So ask away. (No guarantees on answers, but I'll do my best.)

"Upon all that this day unite with love under will let fall success; may strength and skill unite to bring forth ecstasy, and beauty answer beauty.

So mote it be."

Congratulations nathicana220 and Derek!

I will be doing a word fast from 10 pm Saturday the 7th to 10 pm Sunday the 8th. Not only will I be keeping silence during this time, I will also being trying to be in silence as much as possible. My computer and cell phone will be off - in case of emergency, please contact gg_83.