Happy Eostara!

Happy March Equinox! Happy Eostara in the northern hemisphere!

• What are the sunrise and sunset times where you are? 
• How many hours of daylight are there today in your locale?

There are lots of places to look this information up, from the US Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index.php) to TimeAndDate.Com (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html), and more. 

• What spiritual lessons or reminders does Spring Equinox bring you?  

Other recent astronomical events: 

There was also a solar eclipse today, visible in much of Europe, northern Africa, and northern Asia.  We had brilliant sun mixed with scudding clouds here, but I did get some really cool views using a colander and a piece of white paper taped up to the side of the house.  That was pretty neat! 

Earlier this week, much of the UK saw some gorgeous auroras.  My city was fogged in, so I didn't get to see any, but there are some fabulous pictures at the AuroraWatch UK Flickr pool: https://www.flickr.com/groups/aurorawatch. 

I hope this Equinox brings either Spring or the promise of Spring to all of you in the Northern Hemisphere who have had unusual amounts of cold, snow, or both this winter, and to anyone who is just. ready. for. Spring. 

Happy Eostara! 

Winter Solstice 2014?

I am looking for people anywhere in the world who would be interested in doing a Winter Solstice Celebration based on A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual, privately with a small group of friends / family. Think, getting together in someone's living room, using the CD or an iPod for the music, and sharing the reading. Five is a good minimum number, though I've done it with fewer -- you can do it by yourself -- and as far as I know there is no maximum number. Support and encouragement available from me.

Let me know if you're interested!

More information is available at TinyURL.com/WinterSolsticeSinging.

There's also a Facebook group for people who are involved in this project at http://www.facebook.com/groups/AWSSR/.

Building the labyrinth, part II: Making the full-size labyrinth

In my last two labyrinth posts, I talked about the process of realizing we could build a labyrinth in the workshop at Gathering (here), and how to draw the labyrinth I decided we would build (here).

In this post, I'm going to talk about how we actually built the labyrinth on campus, in the workshop.  Hopefully this will be useful for anyone else who wants to do this, too! 


Beforehand:

There was a bunch of preparation work that had to be done beforehand.

The first was deciding which labyrinth to build.  I drew lots, and lots, and lots of labyrinths in my Book of Shadows.  I wanted one that was long enough to be an interesting walk (and for people to be able to go into trance / have a worshipful experience while walking), but not too long.

Most of the labyrinth designs I saw were either too long and too big, or too short and too small.

I played with a bunch of different seed patterns, and eventually came up with a slightly non-standard seed pattern, which resulted in this six-circuit Cretan-style labyrinth:

6-circuit Cretan-style labyrinth

(Note: click on any picture for a larger version.)

Next, using guidance from this page -- http://www.labyrinthos.net/layout.html -- I had to determine how wide I wanted the paths to be, and how much total space we would need.

With this labyrinth, by counting the paths across the labyrinth, I could see that the space we would need would be 11 times the width of the paths / aisles. 

I wanted our paths to be three feet wide, so that people who use wheelchairs would be able to use the labyrinth, if their wheelchairs could accommodate whatever surface we'd be on and whatever slope it might have.

Therefore, we needed 33 feet of space.

Now to figure out how much rope or ribbon we needed as the guide for where the lines would go.  The ribbon would need to be as long as the radius of the circle, or half the diameter of the circle.  We've already established that the diameter would be 11 path widths, or 33 feet (see above).  Half the diameter, or the radius, would be 5.5 path widths, or 16.5 feet.  I decided I wanted an extra path width, so the person holding that end of the ribbon had some space.  So:

6.5 paths x 3 ft / path = 19.5 ft of ribbon

Because I live in the UK and was buying ribbon in advance, I needed to know how many cm or m:

3 feet / path x 12 in / ft x 2.54 cm / in x 6.5 paths = 594 cm.  I decided to buy 6 m. 

(Kudos to unit analysis learned in chemistry!)

Supplies needed:

• tent stakes / tent pegs, to mark the points in the seed pattern
• a ribbon that is at about 6x the width of the aisles
• a marker to mark the ribbon
• a tape measure
• boundary marker  

There are many materials you can use to mark the boundaries of your paths.  The University where we were doing this wanted us to use field paint, so we did.  (And it was a lot of fun!) 

At this point, before I went any further, I wanted to make sure I really understood this process, and I want to make sure it worked.

I wrote myself a detailed, step-by-step instruction list.  

Then Beloved Wife and I made scale models on paper in our living room.  We took a piece of ribbon, marked it off in 3-inch intervals (1 inch for each foot), took a couple of magic markers, and laid out this labyrinth about three times on big paper on our living room floor.  This was very helpful.

Those two activities together meant I had a very solid understanding of the process, and had the resources to repeat it in large scale and under pressure. 


Beforehand, on-site:

Beloved Wife and I went to the site the Gathering Coordinator had picked, and did the following:

Marked off the ribbon.  First we tied loops on either end of the ribbon, to go around a tent peg on one side, and for a ribbon-minder to hold on the other.  Our paths were going to be three feet.  So our first mark was 1.5 feet from the far end of loop (which I'll call Loop A); the second, 3 feet from the first; and all the rest, 3 feet from the one before it, until we had 7 marks on the ribbon. 

Determined the center of the space so that we would know where the center tent peg was going to go.  Luckily the four trees were nearly equally spaced around the circle, 90 degrees off from each other.  We laid the ribbon down to give us roughly a straight line to follow, and we walked from one tree, heel to toe, across the circle to the one opposite, counting our steps.  Then we walked back half the number of total steps and put a tent stake there.  We did the same with the other two trees -- then had to jiggle a bit to get those two points to agree. 

Put tent pegs in the ground to anchor the seed pattern.   We used 17; we could have used 15, but marking all 17 points gave me additional confidence.

• We placed the center peg, marked here with arrows, at the center of the space, through Loop A on the ribbon.  
• We put two pegs 1/2 path-width to either side of the center peg.  This is the first marking on our ribbon.
• We put two more pegs to the left of the center peg, at 1-width intervals, using the ribbon to show us where.  
• Turning the right angle counterclockwise, we placed three more pegs at 1-width intervals, using the ribbon to show us where.  
• We went back to the center peg, this time turned the corner clockwise, and placed three more pegs at 1-width intervals after the corner, using the ribbon to show us where.  
• We turned the next corner clockwise -- along the "bottom" of the square now -- and placed two pegs at 1-width intervals, using the ribbon to show us where.
• Next we used the ribbon to measure 1-width intervals to place the pegs in the center of the square. 

Now we got out the field paint and began marking the ground:

-- The ground at the center peg (marked in this diagram with arrows).  This is the peg the ribbon would be anchored to. 

-- The ground at the four corner pegs. 

-- The lines of the seed pattern, as below:

• Using the ribbon as a guide, we painted from the first peg to the left of the center peg to the next peg "below" it, then from that peg out to the next peg on the right, making the right angle in the upper right corner, and also marking the ground at the base of the tent peg in the upper right corner.  
• We did the same thing in the diagonally opposite corner, making the right angle in the lower left corner and marking the ground at base of lower left tent peg.  
• Using the ribbon to guide us to a relatively straight line, we painted the diagonal connecting line between the two middle pegs of the right angles.  
• We took the ribbon and put Loop A around the tent peg at the top left.  Using the 1-width unit as a guide, we painted from the first peg to the right of it, to the first peg below it, making the curve at the upper left corner.  
• Similarly, we took the ribbon and put Loop A around the tent peg at the bottom right.  Using the 1-width unit as a guide, we painted from the first peg "above" it to the peg to its left, making the curve at the bottom right corner.

Now we had the seed pattern set and ready to build the labyrinth in the workshop.

We pulled up all the tent stakes (yes, some of them had field paint on them), and left.


Building the labyrinth as a group:

Now came the time for the group to build the labyrinth.

Volunteers needed:

• 2 volunteers to mind the ribbon, 1 at each end
• 6 volunteers to paint the lines (can be done with as few as 1, but it takes longer!)
• 4 peg minders, one at the center peg, and one at each of the two upper corners and the bottom right corner
• The person with the overall vision, directing things

(In reality, we had 3 painters at a time, because we had 3 cans of paint to work with.)

I put the stakes / pegs back in around the outside of the square, and put Loop A of the ribbon over the center tent peg (marked here with arrows). 

First swath: 

• One peg/ribbon minder at the center tent peg, to keep the peg from being pulled out of the ground and the ribbon from getting tangled.  
• One peg minder at the top left corner.  
• Three painters, one each starting from the bottom three pegs on the left-hand side of the square.
• End ribbon minder. 

We started with the ribbon reaching counterclockwise from the center peg, around the top left peg, and down to the bottom left peg.

The end ribbon minder slowly walked the ribbon clockwise, low to the ground, pulling it taut (but not too tight), from the bottom left corner to the top left corner.  The painters followed their marks on the ribbon, spraying the paint on the ground.  The director called for the ribbon to stop when the ribbon came even with the straight line at the top of the square.  The peg minder at the top left corner was the backup person for recognizing when to call the stop. 

Now it looked like this:

Second swath:

• Ribbon/peg minder at the center tent peg, to keep the peg from being pulled out of the ground and the ribbon from getting tangled.  
• Peg minders at the top left corner and top right corner.  
• Six painters.   
• End ribbon minder.

The ribbon is stretched out to the left of the center peg.

Because we had three cans of paint, we did this stretch in two parts, the three inner, and the three outer.

The first time through, we had three painters at the first three pegs / first three marks on the ribbon from the center peg; the next time through, three painters at the second three marks on the ribbon, which lined up with where the first painting had left off. 

The end ribbon minder slowly walked the ribbon clockwise, low to the ground, pulling it taut (but not too tight), from the top left corner to the top right corner.  The painters followed their marks on the ribbon, spraying the paint on the ground.  The director called for the ribbon to stop when the ribbon came even again with the straight line at the top of the square.  The peg minder at the top right corner was the backup person for recognizing when to call the stop. 
 
Now it looked like this:

Third swath:

• Ribbon/peg minder at the center tent peg, to keep the peg from being pulled out of the ground and the ribbon from getting tangled. 
• Peg minders at the top right corner and bottom right corner.  
• Five painters.   
• End ribbon minder. 

The ribbon is stretched out to the right of the center peg.

Because we had three cans of paint, we did this stretch in two parts, the three inner, and the two outer. 

The first time through, we had three painters at the second, third, and fourth marks on the ribbon from the center peg, which lined up with where the last painting had left off; the next time through, two painters at the next two marks on the ribbon, which lined up with where the last painting had left off. 

The end ribbon minder slowly walked the ribbon clockwise, low to the ground, pulling it taut (but not too tight), from the top right corner to the bottom right corner.  The painters followed their marks on the ribbon, spraying the paint on the ground.  The director called for the ribbon to stop when the ribbon came even again with the straight line on the side of the square.  The peg minder at the bottom right corner was the backup person for recognizing when to call the stop. 
 
Now it looked like this:

Fourth swath:

• Ribbon/peg minder at the center tent peg, to keep the peg from being pulled out of the ground and the ribbon from getting tangled. 
• Peg minders at the top right corner and bottom right corner.  
• Two painters.   
• End ribbon minder.

The ribbon is stretched out to the right of the center peg, clockwise around the top right corner, and down the side of the square.

The painters start at the last two marks on the ribbon, painting from where the last painting swath left off.  

The end ribbon minder slowly walked the ribbon clockwise, low to the ground, pulling it taut (but not too tight), from the bottom right corner to the bottom left corner.  The painters followed their marks on the ribbon, spraying the paint on the ground.  The director called for the ribbon to stop when the ribbon came even again with the straight line on the side of the square.  The painters were the backup people for recognizing when to call the stop, which was when their lines joined the ones already painted. 
 
Now it looked like this:

Final bits:

We pulled up all the tent pegs and the ribbon and put them away. 

Now our labyrinth was ready for us to walk!

Hopefully, this will be a useful aid for anyone else who wants to use the method of laying out a labyrinth detailed at http://www.labyrinthos.net/layout.html.

Building the labyrinth, part I: Laying it out on paper

I posted recently about the labyrinth my workshop built at FGC Gathering this summer.  I promised I'd post a detailed how-to; here it is!

Part I: Laying it out on paper

First, draw the seed pattern.  I used this seed pattern, but modified:

Original seed pattern

I wanted fewer right angles, but still the suggestion of a heart shape in the middle from having some right angles.  Here is the modification: 

First modification to seed pattern

 However, if you create a labyrinth just from this, you end up with too many choice points, and not a simple, straightforward labyrinth.  (Go ahead and try it without this next step; you'll see.)  So, I added a line: 

Modified seed pattern

First connection:

One connection

Second connection.  Basically, the connections always go from the next unconnected point on one side to the next unconnected point on the other: 

Two connections

Third connection:

Three connections

 Fourth connection:

Four connections

Fifth connection:

Five connections

Sixth and final connection:

Six connections (all connected)

Next post: how we laid this out on the grass!

Draft of Pattern for V-Shawl in Three Colors

Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered to test this pattern for me!

The draft pattern as a .pdf file is available at http://stasa.net/crochet.

There are pictures (and a link to the pattern) on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/stasa/v-shawl-in-3-colors.

There are also now pictures at http://stasa.net/crochet.

Please post questions, feedback, comments, etc., here as you go along.

Thanks again!  Have fun!

The Edinburgh Complaints Choir

I am having so very much fun singing with the Edinburgh Complaints Choir, part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival.

I signed up because I have long been a fan of complaints choirs, and I thought it would be fun.  It has been a blast in so many ways!

I think none of us knew the Edinburgh choir would become so popular so quickly, but all of a sudden, we are in high demand!

Places to find us in real life:

• http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/commissions/complaintschoir

Place to find us in print and in video: 

• From BBC Scotland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23574229

Places to find us on the radio (!):

• BBC Radio 4 Today (from this morning!): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01dt2q9
• BBC World Service (also today!, at about :50 into the Newsroom programme): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016tklr
• BBC Radio 5 Live (live performances today at 4.30pm, 5.50pm, and 6.50pm): http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live

Find us on Twitter:

• #ComplaintsChoir
• https://twitter.com/search?q=%23complaintschoir

In the meantime, enjoy this video:

Labyrinths! Thinking outside the box

At Friends General Conference Gathering this summer, I was scheduled to facilitate an updated version of my workshop "The Goddess Is Alive and Magic Is Afoot."  I was excited, and looking forward to it!

Workshops at FGC Gathering are 13.75 hours, five mornings from 9:00 am to 11:45 pm.  (They used to be 16.5 hours, six mornings.)

My workshop outline called for us to walk a labyrinth on day two.

A number of times over the past ten years or so, someone at Gathering has built a temporary labyrinth on campus.  I was hoping this person, or someone inspired by him, would create a labyrinth this year. But if not, I had a couple of options.  There was supposedly a labyrinth in a church about a mile from this year's campus; I could talk to them and make arrangements for us to go there Tuesday morning.  We could do a spiral walk in our classroom.  We could maybe build a very simple labyrinth in our classroom, with the ever-present blue tape on the carpet.  (I have come to love blue painters' tape.)

I was very sure that building a large outdoor labyrinth was not something we would have time for, and equally sure it was beyond my skill set.

It turns out, I was wrong. Which is a wonderful thing.

About a week and a half before Gathering, I emailed the Gathering Office to find out if anyone was making a labyrinth on campus. No, not this year. 

As I continued finalizing my workshop outline details, I found I wasn't sure I wanted to spend a workshop morning working with an indoor labyrinth in a Christian church.  But I also wasn't really satisfied with any of the alternatives I'd identified, either. 

I posted a query in my social media network for Pagan and Pagan-friendly friends -- here's the situation; here are my options; if you were in this workshop on the Goddess and magic, what would you prefer?  I wasn't looking for anyone to tell me what to do, but I was hoping people's answers would help me sift through all the ideas in my own head and shake something free.

The conversation did way more than that.

A couple people spoke to how walking a labyrinth in a Christian church could be problematic, or work just fine, or both/and.  Someone talked about what a gift it is to the entire Gathering to build a labyrinth.  If my workshop couldn't do it, maybe a Junior Gathering group could.  I started looking at possible labyrinth patterns I could ask someone else to do.  More ideas flowed.  Maybe I and some helpers could do it the day before the workshop started, or the first afternoon of the Gathering.  Maybe we could use a painted dropcloth.  Maybe we could outline it in heavy rope.  Or birdseed.  Or flour or constarch (cornfour) or...  Maybe this.  Maybe that.

Some of the suggestions were completely unrealistic; some were great ideas but not quite "it"... but the whole conversation was super-helpful.  Everybody's contributions got the ideas flowing, and -- most of all -- helped me see I'd been thinking in a box, and that maybe I didn't need to think in that box...

Early in the conversation, one friend shared this video of how to draw a simple Cretan labyrinth, saying (she was right) that she thought I'd be more interested in Cretan ones than Medieval ones:


I suddenly found myself fascinated with drawing labyrinths.  

Later in the conversation, someone shared this page on how to lay out a temporary labyrinth quickly, easily, and with a small group of people:

"Laying Out a Labyrinth," http://www.labyrinthos.net/layout.html

I still didn't see how I could do this in the workshop, but I kept drawing labyrinths.

Then Beloved Wife got home from a professional conference and asked me how my prep was going.  I explained.  She asked more questions.  I showed her my drawings, the video, and the web page.  She studied the how-to.  "Oh, you could totally do this in your workshop, and have plenty of time the same morning to walk it!"  I was dubious at first, but as we talked about it more, I came to the conclusion she was right. 

We played with several different seed patterns.  I wanted something long enough to be interesting, but short enough that we could all walk it in the time needed.  We decided on a seed pattern, and modified it slightly so it would have fewer right angles, and still have the suggestion of a heart-shape in the heart of the labyrinth.

We even laid it out on our living room floor, using ribbon, markers, and really big paper.  It worked!!

I emailed the Gathering Office, apologizing profusely, and said I'd be happy to get in touch with Facilities / Grounds Crew / whoever was appropriate at the University, to find out what it would be all right to use for boundaries -- bird seed, flour, etc.

When I got email back from the Gathering Coordinator, the answer was: I found The Perfect Spot on campus; also, the answer is field paint, and they sold us three cans.  (!!!!!)

(Yes, it's true.  I absolutely had to play with spray paint to build this labyrinth.  Heh heh heh heh.)  (It was wicked fun.)

The afternoon before Gathering started, Beloved Wife and I laid out the seed pattern using tent stakes, a ribbon marked at the appropriate intervals with magic marker, and the field paint.  (This was also a test to make sure I could tolerate the field paint.  It was fine.)

Day two of Gathering, we built the labyrinth in my workshop.  We had a couple of small hitches, but it worked!  Everyone got to participate, either by painting, walking the marker ribbon, making sure the ribbon came around the right pegs without the pegs coming out of the ground, holding space while we did this in a spirit of worship and magic, etc. 

We had just enough space to make aisles that were three feet wide, so people who use wheelchairs or scooters had enough space (and if their chairs or scooters could cope with the grass and the slight slope).  Two of the four trees were outside the labyrinth, two were incorporated; when she had scoped out the space, the Gathering Coordinator was charmed by the idea of including some of the trees, and hoped we would.  Also, and best of all, the space was in shade both morning and afternoon.

Details of how we built it in the next post. 

Now I want to build a labyrinth in our communal back garden at home for Fall Equinox!

In honor of FGC Gathering 2012: All God's Quakers Got a Place on a Committee

The theme for this year's Gathering of Friends General Conference (http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering) is "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir." 

In honor of this, I re-present an old post, from University Friends Meeting at North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions a few years ago -- "All God's Quakers Got a Place on a Committee." 

It starts like this:

All God's Quakers got a place on a committee
We don't care if you're plain or pretty...

Click here for the rest...

The Sun is a mass! Happy Summer Solstice!

This has been stuck in my head for days now:

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it's hot! The sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives

Umpteen years or so ago, I was delighted when National Public Radio played this in honor of Summer Solstice:




Now, of course, there's an updated version:




Enjoy!

Two wonderful videos from UUI's Winter Solstice Celebration

Ever wonder what those Winter Solstice Celebrations based on A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual that I'm always talking about are like?  

Well, I can give you a little window into part of one of them: here are two videos from the 2011 Winter Solstice Celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis!

The first video includes parts of "Imani," by Rachael A. K. Hazen, and "We've Got the Power," a traditional song from South Africa:

The second video includes the grounding and centering from the Narration, co-written by Julie Forest Middleton and Stasa Morgan-Appel:

Excerpted from a presentation of A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual, (c) 2002 Julie Forest Middleton and Stasa Morgan-Appel.  For more information, click here.

Enjoy!

In the velvet darkness, II: the rest of the weekend

The third weekend of December -- the velvet night of the darkest time of the year -- was for me filled with light, laughter, absurdity, and magic.

The magic of Winter Solstice

That Saturday night was my first Winter Solstice Celebration in Edinburgh, which I posted about here.

When it was over, and we had finished cleaning up, we caught a cab home.

And such a cab ride it was. 

Through the worm-hole

We lugged our bags and baggage to the taxi stand across the street, climbed into the first taxi, and entered a worm-hole. 

There was a stocking hung up behind us.  There were a neon tree and an electric wreath on the divider in front of us. 

As we got underway, the cabbie told us "There's a treat for you in the stocking, if you've been good."  I did not have the courage to reach in there, but Co-Conspirator did, and found good chocolate candy, which she generously shared.

The cabbie, having heard my American accent when we gave the address, asked where I was from; I said the US, he asked where, I explained, yada, yada.  Conversation ensued about how America has given the world some of the best music and musicians and recording artists, like Luther Vandross, you know, and...

Would we like to hear him (the cabbie) sing?  It's something he learned from one of the greatest American artists...

Sure!, we chorus.  (It's only a short cab ride, and we're punchy anyway.)  

He puts on a karaoke CD (truly!), and starts singing Barry Manilow's "I Made It Through the Rain."

!!!!!

I'm in the middle, wedged between Co-Conspirator and Beloved Wife.  Co-Conspirator is clutching my shoulder; Beloved Wife is carefully not looking at or touching either of us (well, except for being wedged tightly together).

This guy can actually sing, and sing well.  And he's clearly practiced and has good breath control.  (He even timed it well with the speed bumps!)  

And here is where our accounts diverge.

I think we're having a meaningful experience.  Sure, it's schmaltz!  But there's something really lovely and wonderful about it for all that.  Right? 

Noooo.  Beloved Wife and Co-Conspirator are having a completely different experience of the schmaltz.

(Or maybe it's treacle for them -- ?  That could be why.)

So we get back to the flat, get everything inside, and --

Collapse into gales of laughter. 

None of us can quite believe it all, and we all think it's the most surreal thing ever.

Co-Conspirator (who has a degree in a relevant field) decides it was a worm-hole.  There is just no other explanation.

I decide we must have gone through New York City on our way from St. John's back to our side of town, because really, where else would this happen? Edinburgh??

Eventually we have cups of her amazing peppermint tea and eat lots of dark chocolate digestive biscuits before she returns to her own nearby flat.  But we keep bursting into giggles.

The 80s are back

The next day, Beloved Wife and I went grocery shopping.

There's a Clarks shoe store in the same shopping center as our nearest grocery store, and we had a little bit of time and I needed boots, so we decided to duck in.  Plus, they were having a big sale.

I tried on some of what I needed, with Beloved Wife urging me away from plain weather-proof boots in hiking-boot styles, and towards trendy/dressy weather-proof boots.

"You know, it didn't occur to me that I could get dressy winter boots.  No wonder I wasn't excited about those.  These are much nicer." 

"No, no, you definitely need stylish boots."

(I feel like somehow, over the years, our shoe conversations have flipped 180 degrees.  I think I definitely used to be the one with dressier shoes (and boots).  Now she is.  (Maybe it's the influence of Dr. Isis -- ?)) 

They didn't have what I decided I wanted in my size, but I tried on some similar things. 

And then Beloved Wife found these lovely black leather zip-up slightly-slouch ankle boots with a buckle and chain on sale for £30.  They would fit a hole in my wardrobe, but were not what I had gone into the store to buy, and therefore I couldn't buy them, right?  But they were so cute.  And Beloved Wife thought they looked fabulous (actually, she used a different word).  And they had them in my size, and they fit.  (I have hard-to-fit feet.)  And they were on sale.  And they were sensible, comfortable, walkable, and sexy.

And they were giving me flashbacks to my adolescence.

I tried them on and walked over to the mirror.  "I feel like I'm back in high school.  Only I'm finally trendy!" 

The second (older) salesclerk looked at me and said, "Wow.  All you need are leg warmers!"

At which point I -- yes, it's true -- I pulled up my jeans legs and pulled down my leg warmers.

At which point she, Beloved Wife, and I collapsed into gales of laughter.

The salesclerk who was helping us returned from the back with another boot in another size.  "What?"  I showed her.  "Oh, that's cute!" she said, smiling and nodding.

Clearly of a generation which could not understand why it was hilarious rather than "cute." 

I looked at the other salesclerk and asked, "Have you seen 'Flashdance'?"  She nodded.  I solemnly intoned, "I promise I no longer own any ripped sweatshirts."  She giggled. 

I did buy the boots.  And they are totally awesome. And quite comfortable. 

And you can't even tell they're 80s boots if I'm wearing them inside my jeans.

Feuerzangenbowle

Monday night, I went to a small work party/get-together with Beloved Wife, her work group, and some of their assorted family members.  In general, I enjoy her colleagues and their collective (and sometimes slightly warped) sense of humor.

Our host had said in the email invitation, that because they were missing pieces from the set, there would "probably be no flaming tongs"... but it turned out we were treated to the German tradition of Feuerzangenbowle, or flaming punch, after all.  Here's a link to a video, but it does not completely capture the magic (in the spiritual sense or the geek or chemistry senses) of blue flaming rum and sugar dropping down into the punch bowl and running around til burned. 

So we had light in the darkness, good-natured teasing, conversation, company, friendship, and lots of laughter on Monday, as well.

And then Beloved Wife and I had a few quiet days to ourselves before spending the rest of the holidays with family.

Blessings

I hope your holidays were similarly blessed with magic, laughter, good companionship, friendship, family, love, chocolate, fire, unexpected blessings... and schmaltz.

(Just in case, here's a little extra schmaltz for you.  I'm sorry he doesn't have a Scottish accent like our cab driver.)

In the velvet darkness I: The magic of Winter Solstice

The third weekend of December -- the velvet night of the darkest time of the year -- was for me filled with light, laughter, absurdity, and magic. 

The magic of Winter Solstice

That Saturday night was my first Winter Solstice Celebration in Edinburgh.  As as I do pretty much every year -- even when I also do something else for Solstice, and even when I work with it by myself -- I worked with A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual.  I did a community Celebration, as I often do.  And this year, it was completely different from any other year, as is often the case.

I was not working with a choir this year, instead depending on... whomever was led to show up.  In the past when this has been the case, I've at least known ahead of time who was coming.  Not so this year.  I taught two music workshops ahead of time, both of which were lovely, but had small attendance, and then spent an evening singing with my Co-Conspirator, the F/friend who was my co-planner/publicity helper, going over music.  (Heh heh heh heh.  She subsequently turned up on my doorstep compulsively singing "Imani" and "We've Got the Power."  *happy cackle*)

It turned out we would have four singers as anchors, including me.  Hmmmm.

Other volunteers are also needed to make this happen: one Narrator, four Readers, some candle volunteers, a greeter, people to set up and break down...

The week before, I had met with the person who'd agreed to be Narrator, someone from my Meeting here.  I was really looking forward to hearing her narrate; she has a beautiful reading voice, she was convinced this was going to be lovely, and she was looking forward to seeing it in reality.  Co-Conspirator and Beloved Wife had agreed to be Readers #1 and #3 and to help with set-up, and Beloved Wife had agreed to be the welcome person/staff the door.  We still needed Readers #2 and #4 as well as candle volunteers, and were going to ask people as they arrived.

We felt pretty confident this would work.

I had no idea who would show up.  I'd sent announcements to both the closest Quaker Meetings and to several local Pagan groups, had posted fliers in the businesses closest to the Hall we'd rented as well as several other crunchy-granola businesses and my library, had emailed friends, and had posted to Facebook and Witchvox, etc. -- all the usual.

It was a big experiment, and I had layer of "Eeek!" in there somewhere, but mostly I felt a kind of flexible, happy expectation: I didn't know what would happen, but it was going to be neat to find out. 

The night before the Celebration, the Narrator called: she had a terrible cold and barely had any voice.

Beloved Wife had narrated before, and agreed to be Narrator instead of Reader #3.

Now I needed three Readers.

Looking at my to-do/still-need list on Saturday morning, I was somehow delighted and inclined to laugh.  I was slightly stressed, and yet convinced it would be fine.  Yes, we really would create this together.

And we did.

It was magical.

And it was one of the most drama-free Winter Solstice Celebrations I've ever had. (From the start of planning through to sorting everything out in the end.)

People sang.  Starting with "Round and Round." They even sang in parts, they sang together, and they sang with confidence.

People read. 

People helped with candles.

People took ownership of their experience.

People passed the Light, nourished it, sheltered it from drafts, encouraged it when it faltered, until the room was aglow.

People helped collect our candles and make sure they were safe while we moved around.  

With Co-Conspirator's wordless encouragement, people took up percussion shakers during "This Little Light" and "Imani" so that I wasn't alone on my drum.

People sang.  People moved their bodies.  People sang in harmony.

They smiled. 

They re-grounded.

They built community.

Folks stuck around for a little while after, talking, being together.  And then they helped clean up -- my blurred impression is the only things that were left for us to do were the things that only we could do.

The Celebration started at 7:05, and we were out of the Hall by 9:15.

And then, we caught a cab home.

Recommended radio piece: BBC's "Twenty Minutes: Quakers Don't Sing"

BBC Radio's Twenty Minutes: Quakers Don't Sing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013xq72/Twenty_Minutes_Quakers_Dont_Sing/

This was announced at the rise of Meeting for Worship yesterday, and we made sure to listen when it was broadcast last night.  Some F/friends in the States also heard it and passed the link on to the Quaker Pagans email list.  It's both fun and deeply moving. 

Many creative people have found a spiritual home amongst the Quaker movement in our noisy modern world but one thing seems to be missing from this most peaceful of all gatherings - music. Dame Judi Dench, novelist Margaret Elphinstone and the composer Sally Beamish contribute to a montage of thoughts, akin to a Quaker meeting discussion, and reveal their own relationships with silence and music.

The Quaker part starts at about time mark 3:30.  Enjoy! 

(The broadcast is available on-line through 8:30 PM British Summer Time on 4 September.)

Recommended reading: Feminist Hulk and J's interviews at Ms. Magazine Blog

Here are links to the three interviews -- two with Feminist Hulk and zir "literary life partner," J, one with J alone -- at Ms. Magazine Blog.  I found that while reading these, I laughed uproariously, nodded, winced, and felt often like I'd found two like-minded souls.

Enjoy!

FEMINIST HULK SMASH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MS.!
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/06/07/feminist-hulk-smash-exclusive-interview-with-ms/

FEMINIST HULK MEET MS. MAGAZINE: THE SEQUEL
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/06/20/feminist-hulk-meet-ms-magazine-the-sequel/

Who's Behind the Mask of Feminist Hulk?  Only the Ms. Blog Knows!
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/08/22/whos-behind-the-mask-of-feminist-hulk-only-the-ms-blog-knows/

Feminist Hulk make Stasa happy

You can take that any way you want; but what I'm talking about is, I love this quote:

It’s important to remember that Republican doesn’t have to equal conservative. Palin is an embarrassment for the many intelligent and dedicated Republicans who are tired of their party’s dependence on the far right. In a year when so much of the GOP’s agenda has appealed to conservatives by stomping on women (whether by trying to defund Planned Parenthood’s ability to offer pap smears–in a redundant effort to limit federal abortion support–or by trying to redefine rape), I think there is no greater sign of this problem than the laughable notion that Palin is the best female candidate they could come up with.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/06/20/feminist-hulk-meet-ms-magazine-the-sequel/

This quote is from Feminist Hulk's "literary life partner," J. (Jessica Lawson).

Why do I love it?

It's nuanced.

I've been following Feminist Hulk for a while, and I just finished reading all three of zir interviews with Ms. Magazine Blog.  Feminist Hulk is a fierce feminist, as fierce as I am.  This makes me happy.  And just as Hulk smash gender binary, Hulk smash us/them binary that divides women from each other and people from other people who share values with each other.  This also makes me happy.  (Yes, labels like "Republican" and "Democrat" are at times irrelevant.)   

It takes courage to cut across that either/or divide, whether it's in politics, religion, spirituality, culture, customs, etc. 

At its heart, feminism is about seeing through those artificial either/or divides, back to both/and.

At their heart, so are Quakerism and many forms of Paganism.

Feminist Hulk rock.

(And Feminist Hulk make Stasa happy.) 

All God's Quakers Got a Place on a Committee

We have an event at North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Session called Community Night.  It's like an open-mic night, or a a talent show, or a cabaret, but where each performer is a group within the Yearly Meeting: Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups, Preparative Meetings, Quarterly Meetings, the occasional Yearly Meeting committee or two.   

With profound apologies to Bill Staines, here are the results of the efforts of the Songwriting Committee of University Friends Meeting. 



A Place on a Committee

All God's Quakers got a place on a committee
We don't care if you're plain or pretty
You have to be a member for Worship and Ministry
But everybody's welcome on Hospitality

Religious Education is a good one, too
'Cause all our children really need you
Oversight's got a lot of clearness to do
And Building and Grounds has plenty, too

Our homeless neighbors share our worship space
And provide our Meeting with a measure of grace
Social concerns proceed apace
And the dish-washing tends to itself -- NOT!

Please take pity on the Finance Committee
They beg for money and they hardly get any
We value all our other seventeen committees
But nobody talks to Nominating

So we all got together for a Year of Discernment
It lasted eighteen months and it left us in ferment
We talked about our talent and commitments and souls
And how to share our gifts and time and anything we got now

All our Friends got a place in our Meeting
From setting out chairs to standing and greeting
Christian and Jew and Buddhist and Pagan
And all of our potlucks have options that are vegan!


----------------------

Permissions update


The Songwriting Committee had no idea this would be of such interest to other Friends, and is humbled and honored by all the interest that's been expressed.  

After consultation with the Clerk and some of the Elders of the Meeting, I (Stasa) have been asked to say:  

• Performance: Permission granted by University Friends Meeting for use for religious / spiritual performance only, with attribution to UFM for the words.  (We cannot, of course, grant permission from Bill Staines for use of the tune.  His contact information is here.)  

• Links: Feel free to link to this page or to RantWoman's page if you would like to link to the lyrics.  (This page: http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2010/07/all-gods-quakers-got-place-on-committee.html.  RantWoman's page: http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/07/all-gods-quakers-got-place-on-committee.html.)  

Thank you, Friends!

Peterson Toscano: "Jesus Loves You! But I've Heard Rumors"

I am FB friends with Peterson (am I name-dropping?), and I just loved this series of status updates when they appeared. And I loved the comment threads that followed. Because Peterson has such a wide range of friends with such a wide range of takes on what he posted, the comment threads were sometimes just as funny, thought-provoking, and illuminating as the status updates themselves.

In his blog post, "Jesus Loves You! But I've Heard Rumors," explaining this whole process, Peterson writes:

On May 25, soon after I arrived in the England for what would be a six week tour that included Northern Ireland, Wales and Sweden, I began a series of Twitter messages that began “Jesus Loves You!” My hope was to do one a day for 31 days, and I did it! My Twitter is attached to my Facebook status and to this blog, so LOTS of people got to see the updates and especially over on Facebook many people commented adding their thoughts.

Check it out... and I hope you get as much out of them as I did. :)

New playlist: Passover 2009

Passover 2009: Songs from our Seder

12 songs, 36.5 minutes
Name Time Album Artist

• DoDi Li, 4:00, Elkins, Notorious

• Would You Harbor Me, 1:49, Camaradas, Three Altos - Amy Bernstein, Paula Pederson & Sarah Thompson

• If Not Now, 1:47, Roots And Wings, Linda Hirschhorn with Vocolot

• Harmony, 2:14, The Earth Will Turn Over, SheWho

• Not By Might, 2:55, Roots And Wings, Linda Hirschhorn with Vocolot

• Keep On Moving Forward, 4:24, Roots, Rock & Revolution, Emma's Revolution

• Lo Yisa Goy, 3:24, Fire Within, Libana

• Peace, Salaam, Shalom, 2:16, One X 1,000,000 = Change, Emma's Revolution

• Birkat Shalom/Blessing For Peace, 1:57, Full Glory/Songs Of Hope, Consolation, And Joy, Juliet Spitzer

• Esah Eiynai, 2:25, Full Glory/Songs Of Hope, Consolation, And Joy, Juliet Spitzer

• LongHairedRadicalSocialistJew, 3:32, Rocket Science, Hugh Blumenfeld

• Por la tu puerta, 5:56, Live Do Not Immerse!, Broadside Electric

Mid-Winter Gathering 2009 Epistle from Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns

[note: this should soon appear on the relevant page of the FLGBTQC website.]

02/15/2009

Dear Friends General Conference and Friends Everywhere,

We send loving greetings to you with this letter, as well as an invitation.

We are gathered at Camp Adams near Molalla, OR for the 2009 annual Midwinter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns. During our time together, we have been exploring this year’s theme “Faith Calls for Justice on the Same Terms.” On our first evening together, we heard stories from and about our spiritual pioneers (both in modern and biblical times). We spent time in worship and worship sharing. We tended to the business of our beloved community. We participated in interest groups on a variety of offerings including trans and other queer concerns, Walt Whitman, Love Makes a Family, singing and others. On Saturday evening, we were blessed with a one-person play by a member of our community who has written about trans folk in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. During all of these times, as well as in fellowship around meals, during walks in the woods surrounding the grounds, and in private conversations we found a blessed time to renew our spirits and support each other.

During our meeting for worship with attention to business a letter from the clerks of the 2009 FGC Gathering was read. While we were glad to learn of the work being done to help ensure the safety of our families who are planning to attend this year’s gathering in Virginia, we were also saddened that once again the Gathering is being held in a place where state laws and constitutions have been re-written to take away our civil rights, including freedom of religion and equality. It is with great sadness of heart that we realize how difficult it is becoming for FGC to find a site for the Gathering where this is not the case. More and more, our families fear that they will not be allowed to make medical decisions about their loved ones or they fear that authorities may not recognize their adoptions, civil unions, and legal marriages. We continue to face the nightmare that loved ones may find themselves alone, while we are prevented from being with them at the times they most need us!

We remembered with gratitude that FGC joined with us in creating opportunities for witnessing to the power of God’s Love in our lives and in our marriages the last time the Gathering was in Blacksburg, and that they stood with us and spoke out for us at that time. We also remember with gratitude the loving minute approved by the FGC Central Committee a few years ago affirming “Our experience has been that spiritual gifts are not distributed with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. Our experience has been that our gatherings and Central Committee work have been immeasurably enriched over the years by the full participation and Spirit-guided leadership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer Friends. We will never go back to silencing those voices or suppressing those gifts. Our experience confirms that we are all equal before God, as God made us, and we feel blessed to be engaged in the work of FGC together."

We acknowledge and appreciate the many times FGC and our meetings have stood for us and with us by approving minutes of support and acknowledging and celebrating our unions and families. We still have work to do. We are now led to invite you to explore ways you, our meetings and faith communities can walk with us in witnessing to the World what we know experientially; that God’s love is indivisible and is not withheld from anyone or any couple seeking to live faithfully in holy union. Our silence and the silence of supportive faith communities make it easier for those claiming to speak with the authority of faith to insert their religious doctrine into the laws that govern our lives, as witnessed recently with the passing of Proposition 8 in California.

Today we are called to:

• Invite FGC and our meetings to join us in bringing Quakers together to help us all understand what is meant by “that which God joins together.” Many meetings struggle with the issues marriage raises. What are the differences between marriage as a civil institution and as a “God anointed” union? How can Friends help in the struggle for full marriage equality for same sex couples?

• Invite FGC to join with FLGBTQC to consider together how and when to bear witness to our experience as a faith community concerning queer marriage and civil rights in part because many sites (like in Virginia) will give us Opportunities to witness to the power of God’s love in our lives and in our families.

• Invite FGC to convene a Gathering or small conference whose theme would be “Who so ever God has joined together” which would address issues of marriage, family and relationships of all orientations and gender. We would suggest that Friends from all “sides” of the marriage question be invited to participate.
  

• Invite our meetings to provide support committees for LGBTQ members and their families when meetings are discerning whether they can or cannot take their marriages under the meeting’s care or when those Friends are made vulnerable because of faith-based witness around civil and constitutional rights in the wider community.

• Invite meetings to participate fully in civil discussions and legislative activism to help speak Truth of our experience of God’s Love for all. Our work can minister to others as we share our own ongoing process as models for other faith communities. We see this as an Opportunity for our meetings to speak publicly to our deeply rooted experience that God calls us to lives of Love and that Love takes many forms.

• We ask FGC, monthly meetings and yearly meetings to raise up the issues of equality and the ways in which our LGBTQ families are most in danger when they travel or seek help, whatever those meetings’ views on LGBTQ marriage.

We want to affirm to you all the power of the witness that our straight allies bring to our own lives and in the wider community. We do not experience this issue as simply a matter of marriage rights, but as a need to affirm and recognize that it is the richness of diversity that has strengthened and nurtured this country and our faith communities through the ages. Friends have long witnessed to a testimony of equality and we ask Friends to join with us in asking our government for equal protection and equal rights for all people.

God has been joining members of our LGBTQ community in loving marriages and relationships for long before these modern times. We are certain that some day civil laws will be enacted that legalize and recognize LGBTQ marriages and other civil rights. We have faith that God will continue to bless our lives. We have hope that civil rights will be in our life times. We know that Love, radical Love, will prevail.

With love and on behalf of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns,



Karen Lightner and Neil Fullagar, co-clerks
Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC)
(contact info available here)

Not-quite-OT: Scottish Country Dancing

Some of you know that one of the things I am passionate about is Scottish Country Dancing, and that I also teach it. (I, half-jokingly, posted instructions for the dance Wild Geese to the Brigid poetry slam.)

Here is a video (link here) to a group of very ordinary dancers doing an amazing thing -- setting a world record for the number of people dancing together. These are all dances I've done, and the Eightsome Reel is one of my favorites, and which I haven't had the chance to dance in much too long.

Note the intergenerational and social aspects of this! :) Also note the really amazing St. Andrew's Cross that the combined sets make when viewed from above.



And here is a video (link here) to another group of Scottish dancers (country and highland) doing something very clever and very silly...



Enjoy!