New Blog

Hey All,

This is an official "nudge" to let you know that I have a new blog, and it's actually update-able from my phone, since my laptop got killed, so I will probably be updating it more often.

However it's also a different format than this, since it will be my personal conversation with the Goddess, so if you'd like to be a fly on the wall or join my conversations, feel free to go to my new blog and join me as I walk my path.

Blessed Be,

Jade~Sam

Red Tent Events

Hey Ladies out there!

So I'm getting the word out there, and thinking of starting a new tradition in Windsor - the Red Tent! Truthfully it's not 'new' by any means. A Red Tent, or a Moon Lodge, was a gathering of women at the New Moon in ancient cultures where wisdom, oral traditions and skills were passed down from generation to generation, and it helped all the women learn from each other, and make sure that the wisdom of their elders continued on into future generations. Which explains why when men, Christianity and white Europeans took over the world, one of the first things they put a stop to was the Moon Lodges.

Women all over North America, and the world have started to take back this tradition, and it is called the Red Tent! I want to get this up and running in Windsor, so I figured I would spread the word on here, Facebook and Twitter! So here is the link to where you can find more info and if you are interested in adding more community in your area, to get a Red Tent going in your community!

Cheers,

~Jade

In case the hyperlink doesn't work.

Lughnasadh 2011

Hey All,

So today is Lughnasadh, or as the medieval Christians called it - Lammas, the first Harvest festival of the year, where corn and wheat are harvested along with some berries, and made their bread as an offering to the gods. I've enjoyed the sunshine all day, and I think I'm going to have a campfire tonight, but I just haven't really felt up to much by way of paganism today. I have a weird kind of sick feeling going on, mostly because Nick has been getting worse since we got back from Spirits Fest this summer.

We went to Spirits together, had a fantastic time (no migraines, woo!) and everything was great, then we got back to Windsor and my allergies went a bit haywire for the first little while, but I got them back under control, however Nick's been getting headaches and migraines pretty much -every-day since we got back. Before we left they were horrible, no medicine except Excedrin worked to control or get rid of them, they were about 2-3x per week and they often had nausea, vomiting from the nausea, and when the actual migraines hit, he goes partially, to completely blind (at least his central vision, with blurry peripherals). He has been getting these since his dad passed away when he was 9, and at the time they had him tested and there was no discernible cause or cure. He hates doctors and refuses to go to the ER, even though I'm REALLY worried about it. I've tried giving him massages to help with the referral patterns of where the headaches are - sometimes it works, however today it backfired and things got worse instead of better. I'm really scared for him. Its like it just keeps getting worse and worse the longer he's in Windsor, and in his house (black mold in his bedroom ceiling!) and I know he's fed up with it, and wants out. I want to be able to help, but I don't really know -what- to do. Massage isn't working, medicine isn't working, he wont go to the doctor and I don't know enough about herbal remedies to be able to help. The only thing I can think of is either moving out of his house, or moving out of Windsor, and neither are very feasible at the current point in either of our lives. I love him so much, and hate seeing him in pain everyday, but I don't know what to do to help. I think this is where the sick feeling is coming from.

On the front of Lughnasadh, and the thought process of harvesting and being thankful for what I have in my life: I'm very happily in love and loving being with Nick, I'm thankful for having him in my life, and I'm looking forward to a happy future with him. I am thankful for the opportunity to go to school for something I love and find interesting and I'm looking forward to working in massage (hopefully by next year). I'm thankful for my friends and family and all the love and support they have shown me over the years and looking forward to many years of future friendship, love and support.

I'm going to go make my campfire and get some meditation in before my parents get back.

-Jade-

Post-Spirits of the Earth Festival 2011

Well it's certainly been a while since I've updated this blog. I had promised myself I was going to keep it up to date but I have fallen behind again. Blessed Aphrodite's titties! It's been more than a month since I've posted on here! A lot has been going on so I've got a lot to catch up on. I'll get the book/quest/challenges-related things done before I get onto the fun topics:

1. Meditation - I've been having fun with meditation over the passed month, I haven't kept up with the daily meditations but I do take the time to ground and center before I get out of bed every morning, and I try to meditate throughout the day as I think of it. I've got to get back into doing my daily yoga/t'ai chi routines now that I'm home from Fest for the summer.

2. Aphrodite's Magic - Saturnine and I did the second chord - the eye of beauty - a bit early last month because she was going to be in town and it was kind of one of those things you had to do together, since skype wasn't really a viable option for full-body-viewing and beauty seeking. It was very interesting as far as experiences go - we went to the mall and sat down in the food court and watched women walk by. We noted what beauty we could see outwardly, what we liked about each woman as she was walking by; then we looked for the Goddess in each woman and what type of Goddess energy they were giving off specifically. After we had lunch and did this exercise we went back to my house and did the final part of the ritual, where we looked at each other and found the beauty in each other and ourselves. My second cord (which I still have to buy since I'm slacking here majorly) is going to be a burgundy, wine coloured cord, the word to describe my beauty was, and the name of my cord was, wine. My goddess energy was like that of the sun, bright and happy, but the wine colour and name makes me think of the party goddesses, or if there was a female version of Dionysus.
Anyways, now it is almost time for the third chord so I need to get back on track and buy that 2nd cord before I move on to the third one!

3. The Earth Path - I have been reading this, slowly but surely, and I believe I am on the 5th or 6th chapter of it, in which Starhawk is talking about 'Air', I didn't feel like I had anything to say about the 'Creation' chapter which is where she was discussing evolution and such, so I didn't blog about it, and I got behind on reading it when I started getting ready to go to Fest and completely forgot I owned a purse (which is where my book was) while I was at Fest, so I need to pick that back up and get back into it.

4. Mind/Body/Spirit/Home - Well I started out really strong in this, I was reading a little bit every day for Mind; doing Yoga/T'ai Chi and eating healthily for Body; meditating or contemplating some spiritual thing every day for Spirit; and doing laundry, cleaning my room or cooking dinner for my parents and I for Home. Then I kept forgetting one of the four tasks, or I got sidetracked by packing that I forgot to do yoga, and then I was at fest, where it was all about 'mind, body, spirit', but my tent was a mess so I did horribly at 'home' .... now I'm home and I'm just so exhausted that I have yet to get back into this. But it's only Tuesday and I got home Sunday afternoon, so I will be getting back into this today.

Okay I think that's all I needed for housekeeping on the various challenges, so now on to my experience at Spirits of the Earth Festival 2011!

So first off - BEST YEAR YET! *happy dance* Alright so now that I've gotten that off my chest, it was a really great time. Nick and I went together to Spirits this year, we drove up in 'my' car, all our stuff fit into the car perfectly, since we only had one of everything except for our clothes and shoes. We got along fantastically, no bickering, we were joking and having a good time like the whole week. When we got there, we set up the tent first and then brought everything over to get it all set up in campsite formation. We were camping in this one clearing on the trail to the revel fire, between the two bridges. If you think of it like a quadrant graph, we were in the lower right quadrant of the circle, Momo showed up with a 10-person-tent for himself and took up the entire upper right quadrant; Cally and Ro; Jacqui and Lindsay; Tom; Lisa and Monica; Tovah; Lindsay; and Mike in order around the circle from lower left quadrant up to upper left quadrant took over the other side of the circle with the path running a little closer to the right side than dead center of the graph. ( | ) if you had to draw it out. [*laughs* Gods I'm neurotic sometimes] Anyways, we set up camp and then went off to explore. Still had to cross the rickety-freaking-rope-bridge to get to the revel fire and back to camp, which when you're drunk/baked, is REALLY creepy and it seems to go on forever, like the hallway in The Shining.
The first night, Tuesday, was a big drinking party where they had the 13 Mountain Mystery Brews set up so everyone got to try them and mostly everyone got REALLY drunk! Then there was karaoke! Oh gods it was hilarious and bad at the same time. Nick was in his kilt (actually he pretty much wore the kilt the whole time - it was nice *wink wink*) and was drunkenly dancing around talking in a weird Irish/Scottish accent. It was most hilarious.
Wednesday night was Water Night, which was pretty fun, however the energy wasn't quite as powerful as I remember from previous years, but it was the first night, so it was just getting off it's feet and started to get going.
Thursday was Earth Night, which should've been ridiculously energetic, but they had a Dionysus ritual going on before the revel fire and elemental tribute, so the energy and drummers got divided between rituals and it basically fizzled out as badly as if it had poured down rain again like it did last year.
Friday was Air Night, which in my opinion was the revel with the most energy since it was when the Dragon Ritual Drummers helped us do a voodoo ritual to bless the fire and the festival for another 8 years. Not to mention we also had this amazing band do a concert beforehand, called Frenchy and the Punk (formerly known as The Gypsy Nomads) and they really got the energy in the place going prior to the voodoo blessing ritual. The Air tribute was also really awesome, and Ro started running around and acting like a wood sprite, hiding behind trees staring at people and then running through the crowd to the other side of the circle. It was hilarious to watch and pretty much perfectly described the energy of the night.
Saturday was Fire Night where we had the DRD playing their concert of the night and the Fire elemental tribute, which had lots of dancing (pagan rotisserie dance or you get scorched by the fire!) and drumming and high energy.

It was a lot of fun and having Nick there with me to flirt and dance with, sit in the camp chairs in the afternoon and read books while listening to the open mic workshop come down on the breeze, cuddle up to at night and talk about everything with. It was a blast and I do believe it was my best fest yet, and I've been coming to Spirits of the Earth every summer for 3 years now. I missed having Saturnine with me to be all wisdom and pagan mama-y with me and make me go to the workshops, but I also liked the chilling out and not attending workshops too. I was sad that David Ellis-Barron and Justin Burk were unable to be with us this year due to their passing away, but I swear I saw them out of the corner of my eye around the festival (walking in the woods, dancing and drumming around the fire) throughout the week, and I felt their spirits there with us.

All in all it was a great fest experience, I met a LOT of new friends, had a fun week away from the city and enjoyed myself thoroughly, but I am glad to be home now, as I'm tanned and exhausted from being outside all the time. It was great to get away, but I'm glad to be home now.

Well that's all I have for now, and I will post again when I get further into the Earth Path book, and when Saturnine and I do the third cord later in the week for the full moon.

Blessed Be!

Jade

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom: Domestic Witchery: Hestia 101

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom: Domestic Witchery: Hestia 101: "The Hestia Tapestry 'Hestia full of Blessings' Photo: From 1945 book Documents of Dying Paganism There are many, many domestic deities from..."

This is a really good informative blog if any ye who follow me wish to learn about domestic magic and goddesses.

The Earth Path: Chapter 3 - The Sacred

The subtitle of this chapter is called "Earth-centered Values" and I think that it's a really great chapter if you can keep all the concepts in order in your mind. There is a lot of metaphysical talk, with the differences and similarities of 'Consciousness, Energy and Form', 'How Energy Moves', 'Form and Matter' and how the choices we makes effect the world in the short term and the long term perspective in the whole, the environment/world/and individual ecosystems.

I have really loved this book so far, and I'm happy to finally get to the 'activities' portion of this book. So here goes, my first activity:

The Sacred Intention

What is Sacred to me? My most sacred things revolve around the natural world, and how we were meant to live off the land, taking care of it and it takes care of us in return. Secondly would be intrinsic value of all living things - plants, animals, the very land we live on, and ourselves. Thirdly would be self-worth/self-esteem and health of myself and my family/friends.

What do I care about so strongly that I couldn't stand to see it compromised or destroyed? I see all of the above things as interrelated or connected as a sort of chain reaction, stemming from the health of the natural world. Since if the earth becomes polluted it compromises the health of all the things living on it, which can kill them and/or lessen their intrinsic value. So my utmost sacred 'thing' would be the natural world, or the Earth herself.

What would I take a stand for? I would and do take a stand for the health of the Earth and those living beings that live upon her. I protest the genetic modification and monoculture in today's agricultural world; the biotechnology in our food production and the mistreatment of animals in order to produce food faster for greater profit. I spend the extra money when possible to buy organic produce and I grow my own veggies, fruits and herbs to be able to take part in the natural cycle of growth and producing food for my household and those of my friends whom I gift my extra tomatoes and such to.

What would I risk myself for? I would risk myself in order to protect the natural world for future generations. If I were in an area that was experiencing clear cutting, I would probably be one of those protestors who lived in the massive redwood in order to stop it's being cut down, or chained themselves to the tree to stop the bulldozers from destroying a natural habitat.

Consider for a moment what the world would be like if our social, political and economic systems all cherished what is most sacred to you. In what ways do they already? There are a number of communities all over the world who are already working to support natural agricultural techniques like that of the indigenous peoples who originally worked their lands, organic farms are springing up all over Canada and the USA, not to mention Australia and New Zealand. The Green Party of Canada finally after almost 30 years, got it's first seat in the Federal Government! Organic alternatives are available for almost everything in grocery stores across the developed countries of the world, so people can make the choice to buy organic and support sustainable living.

In what ways would they need to change? Factory farms need to shut down altogether, or change their practices so that the animals are given a better life while they are alive, workers need to be paid a living wage rather than barely enough to live on, let alone reach the poverty line or get above it. Biotech/Genetic Modification/Monoculture and chemical inputs need to stop and revert back to biodiversity, organic/natural seed and inputs so that we stop polluting our food. "Green" Political parties need to get more seats in the parliament/senate so that we can hear what they are saying in the nation's ears and make the necessary changes to fix the damage we've caused and live sustainable lives. Food would cost a bit more at the grocery stores because people are doing things the natural way, but in turn, people could grow their own food to save on money that they would be spending on products they could grow themselves (local/indigenous fruit and veggies)

What would change, in your daily life? In your community? In the world around you? Can you describe that world in a few sentences or paragraphs? My daily life would probably involve getting up earlier, having a purpose for my day, having more chores and 'To-do-list" items which would involve more gardening or seasonal outdoor care-taking activities. Laundry soap and other household products would be produced by myself and washing the laundry would either be run via solar-energy or by hand, and air-dried on the line outside in the heat of the day. Canning/preserves would be used throughout the winter so that I could still be eating my own produce, cooking techniques would change so that I would minimize waste and what waste I did have would be composted so as to produce natural fertilizer for my gardens come spring and summer. In the community and the world around me there would be more of a true sense of community, of those interconnecting webs that link us all together. People would be more generous with their time, skills and produce, you could use the trade/barter system in real life and not just in a bazaar atmosphere because these changes would mean that a person is not measured just by the amount of money she has in her bank account, but by the skills and produce they have to offer. The world would stop focusing on collecting and hording wealth in the developing countries, and would spread it around so that no one had to live in poverty and die of easily curable diseases because a few people wanted to live like kings.

Do you want to bring that world into being? In a way, I do want to bring this into being, because I think that if people could see beyond their bank account balance to their real worth and marvel at the things they can do with their own hands, they would get a true feeling of success out of their lives. If they saw their fellow man not as someone to compete against to gain the most profit out of their lives, but as someone to share a common meal, celebrate a milestone in their lives, and grow old supporting each other, not only would everyone contribute to society, but they would get more out of their lives than we do in today's society as it is now. But I also realize that this smacks of socialism and communist ways, and we all know what happens when something works out perfectly on paper and someone tries to apply it to real life. It rarely ends well.

Do you feel responsible toward it? I think that if we could actually make people see the truth of what is happening to the Earth and how much damage we are doing to the delicate balance of the world, and take from it the true results that we are heading towards (ie. death and destruction of all life on the planet) that maybe people might get it into their minds and truly into their hearts that they need to make a serious effort in order to effect enough change to reverse our damage to permit our continued existence upon the Earth, then maybe my 'ideal world' might just work. I do feel responsible at least in part for the massive damage we've done to the Earth and I do truly want to change the way I live in order to stop my damage and help reverse it, but I don't know if it will work without a large-scale paradigm shift in modern society.

Now consider how you spend your time and energies. Are your best energies directed toward bringing about your cherished vision of the world? Toward service of what is sacred to you? For the most part - probably not. I get so wrapped up in the daily grind - laundry, school, trying to find a job, etc - that I lose sight of the bigger picture. Most of the time I'm not the one who does groceries in my household, so they go for what's cheaper, not what's better for the environment (hell I had a fight with my mom in Costco the other day about buying biodegradable laundry soap and softener to help out with the environment and lost so how much can I really expect to affect their food choices?) But I do take care of the gardens at my house, I tend and weed and talk my dad out of using pesticide on the trees, and other things like air drying laundry instead of using the electric dryer, and turning off the lights when my mom leaves them on perpetually when leaving the room, burning candles in my room instead of having the big ceiling fan/light on. Trying to keep the AC off and just open the windows on a breezy, less humid day, or at least keeping the number not so drastic so that it feels like winter inside in the middle of the summer. I do a lot of little things to try to make a difference in the bigger picture, even if I can't scale a redwood, name her Molly and live in her for years to prevent clear cutting of the forest.

What do you need to be able to make that change? Support? Opportunity? Courage? Luck? Who can you turn to for support, in the human world? In the larger realms of the universe? In order to make that change I would need to have a job where I could do something I am interested in, which can help benefit my change - I'm in school for Massage Therapy now, which uses my hands to naturally heal people of issues they deal with and incur in their daily lives, so once I am done school and get registered, I can begin to work at that change in my job. Once my financial issues are slightly less up in the air, I can begin to work at the other parts of my life that I can change - getting more of my daily life into line with the change I wish to see in the world - making my own household products, canning my produce and making preserves to hold me through the winter without having to spend extra on frivolous things. Eating only organic foods to support those who follow my world vision, voting and campaigning for the Green Party to help them get more support from the community, working in the community garden to help build a living sense of community and working together. I would need the support of my friends and family so that I don't back down on my vision and dreams. Living in an area that gave me the opportunity to foster this life change, would help, as would having a community of friends to work with on this mission. The courage to stick to my guns and not give in to selfish desire for the 'easy life' but instead to put in the extra work so that I can make the changes I need to protect my sacred intention - the natural world. Oh and a bit of luck to help it all work out! In the human world I can turn to my family (at least my immediate family) to help me by conserving, composting, recycling, buying green products instead of chemicals and not working against me on this road to a cleaner, healthier life and world. I have my pagan community who is constantly working in the same direction as me on this life goal. And those environmental activist who may not be pagan, but see the same things in our current world and wish to change it for the better. In the larger realms of the universe, I turn to the Goddess and God, and all the faces thereof and ask for their support to help me, and my allies, to make the changes and help others to see the error of the current world-view which seems to be a "use what you want, you'll die soon enough anyways and who cares about the future, I wont be here to see it" type of standpoint.

It is my sacred intention to create a world that cherishes the natural world.

Opening to Help

Great powers of creation and transformation in the universe, ancestors, allies, all beings who love the diverse and beautiful dance of life, I am open to your help and I reach out to you. I thank you for the gift of life, for the help and support I have already received, and for the great opportunity of being alive at this crucial moment. I need your help, the opportunity to work towards a sustainable future and the courage to live my dream to serve my sacred intention of creating a world that cherishes the natural world. I give you my gratitude for the help I know is already coming. Blessed be.

~ Jade de Rhiannon ~

A bit of this and that...

So I've been mainly blogging when I've got a challenge going on, or about something I read in one of the online bookclub books I've been reading. And I guess this kind of ties into the Aphrodite's Magic thing, but at the same time it's kind of about something that's been bothering me lately.

Some of you who know me in person, know that my sister-in-law is pregnant with my first nephew, Liam. She's just passed her first trimester and is due at the end of September. She's always been a skinny girl, she gained a bit of weight when she first started living with my brother up in Port Elgin, but I didn't notice it much, if anything I thought it was just her getting used to her new surroundings and my brother's eating habits. Everyone in my family is "bigger" but mostly I think it's poor eating habits, metabolism and heredity. So if anything she just fit in with my family a bit better. Then they were getting married and she started losing weight to fit into the dress - this gorgeous white mermaid dress, she looked stunning, etc. So one weekend they come down to visit (pretty sure this was before they got married, back when she was just putting on some weight) and her dad makes some comment like "Oh hey porky, how's it going up there? I see you've gained some weight." or some other insensitive asshole comment. She was floored and started getting self-conscious after that- have I mentioned I hate her parents? Yeah anyways. So now that she's pregnant she's getting all angry about and touchy whenever someone mentioned her belly. I get that she's had some self-conscious issues in the past, but seriously?! It's a baby belly! You're pregnant. It happens, you're growing a whole new life inside you. Your body changes to accommodate this growth and when he's born you'll probably bounce right back since you're a skinny person by nature. But don't get self-conscious because you've got a baby belly! If anything it's just proof that you're fertile, beautiful and going to be a great mother.

Gods, I WISH that my belly was because I was pregnant (not that I want to be pregnant, I just wish it wasn't because I was lazy and unhealthy in my eating habits, but from some legitimate excuse)... hell I don't even know if I can have kids, so I wouldn't be judging myself for gaining weight or having a belly, if it was because I was actually growing a whole other entity within me. If I could have a perfect pregnant body like Jill, or her friend Steph, I would probably be the happiest woman alive. It just drives me a little nuts when skinny women, or slender women, who have always had rockin' bodies get all "oh my god, I'm getting fat!" when they get pregnant. I kind of want to yell at them "YOU ARE NOT FAT. You are pregnant. There is a difference!"

Okay so how this kind of goes along with the Aphrodite's Magic thing is that the second cord, called "The Eye of Beauty" is coming up in a couple weeks and so I read over the chapter the other night so I could begin to get myself ready for it - with all of the reading I've been doing for The Earth Path I'm feeling very in touch with the Goddess, and I've been working on the meditating on Aphrodite and keeping up with my altar too, so I've begun to prepare for the next cord. Anywho - Beauty. In the eye of the beholder, which is usually not looking at yourself. Well I've been thinking about what I consider to be beauty, beautiful, 'perfection', or 'feminine ideal' and I've come back with a lot of different things.
I find nature to be beautiful - a lush forest, a breathtaking view of a waterfall, a beach, flowers, a well-planned garden, a thunderstorm. I find beauty in children playing outside, in a newborn baby swaddled in a blanket and wrapped in his mother's tender, yet strong, embrace. I find a woman's curves to be beautiful. The solid strength of a man can also be beautiful, but not in the same way. On the topic of feminine beauty, I have a few different thoughts on the perfect example of feminine beauty - because women are ever-changing, as is beauty. I find little girls who are being true to themselves, the bright beaming smile of a little girl learning and having fun adventures in the backyard to be beautiful. I find the slender young woman with ample bust, and wide curving hips to be beautiful. I find the silvering hair of an elderly woman, her face carved with smile and laugh lines to be beautiful. And I find a young woman glowing and heavy with child to be more beautiful than all. She is the perfection to me. Maybe it's because I don't even know if I can have children that I found myself drawn to pregnancy as the ideal of beauty, but I do.

Truthfully, I find all women to be beautiful, I think that personality, self-esteem and curves are beautiful in every body type, however I don't find myself attracted to the skeletal skinny that you see in models and magazine covers, where you have to airbrush the picture not to cover a couple patches of cellulite, but the ribs that are jutting out of her sides because she doesn't have enough flesh to cover them. It doesn't speak of health and happiness to me. It speaks of diets and sadness, of unhealthy eating habits and self-ridicule and truly being sick, to get to being this skinny. I think if I could stick to a diet or change the way I think about food and my relationship to it, and make healthier choices, exercise more and truly be as healthy as I want to be, I would NEVER want to be this skinny (points at picture of Twiggy) it just looks like she's suffering from a wasting disease to me, not that she's beautiful. Sorry, not beautiful to me. I much prefer someone that I can grab on to and enjoy their curves. Not someone so skinny I would break them with a feather.

The book Aphrodite's Magic has a couple of activities to do to get ready for the second cord, and this first one is called 'The Beauty Parlor of the Goddess' which is where you write about, draw, or otherwise creatively put to paper (or blog in this case) your answer to the following question "What were you handed out in the beauty parlor of the Goddess?" You can answer this by cataloging your favourite parts of yourself; your best features, whether they be quirky and individual, classically beautiful, sex, refined or elegant. Then afterward you give thanks to the Goddess for your beauty. So here we go.

1. My eyes - I have always loved my eyes. I love the colours of blue in them, the yellow-green that circles the pupil depending on my mood and gives them a slightly ethereal look. I love that they are beautiful without makeup but can be striking and breath-taking when I put on makeup. I love how they express my emotions, or give away my fears. I truly feel like they are a window to the soul (but I don't believe that whole soul-stealing-camera phobia, or I would have no soul left with all the pictures I've had taken of me in my lifetime).
2. My nose - Okay I don't think it was until recently that I really began to like my nose. I've always thought it too big, too freckly, too sniffle/stuffed-up with allergies, or just ignored it altogether. But I've recently come to like it. It's me, a little pointy, definitely lots of freckles, but it's got character and I like it.
3. My smile - I guess after all the money and time put into it, I ought to like it. I'm always told that my smile lights up a room, I smile when I'm happy, embarrassed, when I can't take a joke, it's both my best display of my feelings but also my best mask to cover them up too. There's a line out of the movie 'Mona Lisa's Smile' where the girl says to her mother "Look at her, Mona Lisa, she's smiling, but is she really happy?" Which is kind of what I think sometimes, and know from experience - a smile can hide all manner of emotion.
4. My breasts - Well that's kind of self explanatory. It's breasts. How do you not like them?! I've always bemoaned them being so big, or whatever, causing back aches, getting in the way, attracting too much attention when I just want to wear a low cut shirt cause it's pretty, but not get male attention. But I do like them. I hate having to wear a bra, but I love my boobs.
5. My derriere - Okay... my ass. I've struggled with accepting and loving my ass a lot over the years. Most of the time I still think that it's too big, that I hate how far out it sticks, but I've come to terms with it, and I've decided to love it.
6. My legs - I've got swimmer's legs, dressage legs and I love them. I've always liked how strong they are. I took up running for a while and man could I see the definition in them! Sometimes I worry about cellulite, but then I remember my stomach and my legs don't look so bad comparatively. Okay so that was a bad joke, but still. I like my legs. I think they have their own kind of beauty.
7. My feet - Not an area that most people find beautiful (okay most people without a foot fetish) but I like mine. They're rough and calloused and have cracks and don't have enough girlishness to them. I'm pretty sure the last pedicure I got months ago is still there in the form of clinging nail polish, but I like them. They help me get around, I've walked over gravel roads, dirt paths, splashed in the mud, danced in the rain and stood for hours on end at work on them. They're well worn, and loved.

That's just about it. I still have insecurities, I still dislike parts of myself and I'm still working on it. I'll do the other exercise later. So far, I think it's pretty good that I came up with 7 things I love about my body. Which is a whole lot better than when I used to just flat out hate my body. So I thank the Goddess for helping me begin the journey of self love and self esteem, and for giving me the courage to look at myself and see the beauty there, not just the things I want to change.

Blessed Be,
Jade