So, I completely forgot to put up a post in November. Oops! I’ll be playing catch up here. (In other words, longer post, here we come!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I drove down to see my mother (and brother and his family) on October 24th. It was great to see them. (Mom had some serious but vastly improved non-Covid health issues in early September, so getting to see her was great.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I took the week of November 2nd off work, and got a bunch of things done, which felt great. There’s a web redesign at work that’s been eating more brain space than I’d like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also finished the big chunk of redesign work for Seeking (you’ll see everything should be consistently formatted finally, with an image suitable for linking on Pinterest at the bottom of every post.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We did a coven Yule virtual exchange<\/strong><\/a>, which had a couple of minor bumps, but I think everyone enjoyed it, and it was nice to be able to do something thinking about a particular person’s tastes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of this year’s Dedicants decided that they were not interested in continuing this past week, so there’s been a little bit of sorting that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (I expect that at least half the people who express interest at any particular stage before initiation won’t continue for some reason. Often it’s a good one, like a new job taking a lot more time, or a move for a good reason. So this is mostly sorting this out, and recalibrating some things in my head since we’ve only got one Dedicant now.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve been doing some house cleaning as part of the run up to Yule. (I might be procrastinating cleaning out the fridge as I write this.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, I took a bunch of time off over the winter holidays, and I’m doing that again this year. As part of a ‘hearth and home’ devotion, I plan to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m taking the last two weeks of December off work (it’s a total of 7 vacation days, due to the holidays) and looking forward to tackling a couple of big writing related projects, plus my seasonal reorganisation of my closet and pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I mentioned, while normally we’d have been doing some initiations and moving forward with some things we do after initiation, that hasn’t been an option this year. Instead, we’re doing some fairly low-structure discussions about runes and things they bring up, using Taking Up the Runes<\/em> by Diana Paxson as a starting point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (My hope is people at least read the chapter and ponder it some before showing up, but we’re designing it so people can participate even if they don’t manage to do the prep work.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re using those to discuss both stuff about the runes in specific, but also for a wider ranging discussion about magic and ritual and witchy good stuff related to whatever those runes are about. For the most recent discussion, we had some great conversations about joy and gifts and obligations of gifts, and what patterns we’ve tangled ourselves up in sometimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m pretty sure none of us are sure what 2021 is going to hold. I’m still working remotely, and right now I’m assuming that’s going to continue until at least April or May of next year, quite possibly into the summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (I’ve got multiple things that make me high risk for Covid, so I’m a) being super cautious and basically not going out but b) qualify for the vaccine early in phase 2 of Massachusetts’s announced guidelines for getting the vaccine, so right now, guessing I’ll manage that somewhere between March and May. But I also work in a building that has medically fragile students.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n But I am assuming that eventually in there I will be going back to my commute and working in the office. So I’m thinking a lot about what habits I can build now that will make life easier when I have to start doing that again, and thinking through what other things will change in my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Including, I hope, an eventual return to in-person coven work, at least some of the time.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the things I’ve been thinking about is what stuff I don’t want to spend time doing in 2021, and what stuff I want to do more of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My newsletter<\/strong> is, okay probably not a thing that’s going to happen very often. I’ll probably still do a couple, but not on any kind of regular schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (It takes an irregular amount of time for me to build up enough links to do something that feels like a useful size, and it turns out that kind of irregular thing is super hard for me to plan time for.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not complicating the day to day life stuff<\/strong>. One thing that being at home has taught me is that the more I reduce complex decision making about what I do about the routine stuff (exercise plans, cooking, etc.) the happier I am, and the more brain I have for things like writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’d already done this with clothing, but I’m working on doing it with household chores, with exercise, and with meal planning. Basically, thinking about it once and then just doing the thing is working for me well. (I do regular planning time on Saturdays, which helps this.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Going anywhere<\/strong>: My original plans for 2020 involved four trips, none of which happened, and I’m also expecting not to travel in 2021. (The one convention I was hoping to make it to has rescheduled to January 2022, which was smart of them.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am hoping to start seeing other humans socially in person somewhere in the second half of 2021, but we’ll see how that goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lots of new content for Seeking:<\/strong> There will be some! Just, I’m expecting this will be a year when I add things as they come up, or I get a burning desire to write them, but probably not a regular supply of new articles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (I am very question motivated, so if there’s something you’d like to see me tackle, let me know<\/a><\/strong>, and there’s a better chance it will appear after I’ve had time to think about it.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Coven stuff continues, of course, though I think the current plans are at a nice stable place in terms of time and energy commitment for me. t<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning Craft: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m in the early planning stages of a project about how to go about learning Pagan and witchy stuff in a way that works for your brain, schedule, and available time. (Plus of course your interests.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n My thought is that this will be an online course (at a very reasonable price point: I’m thinking in the $5-10 range for each piece with some bundling options as I produce more material.) <\/p>\n\n\n\nWitchy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Other:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rune discussion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Thinking about 2021: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Not so much in 2021: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
More in 2021: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n