TTFN

My Rare One and I are off on a Grand Adventure for the next couple of weeks, so I won't be blogging again until mid-October. See you then!

My Guru

I take spiritual instruction from my cat
she has a yoga and meditation practice
she performs the complex curls, twists
and stretches of yoga
with ease (unlike me)
her best position is of course "the cat"
but she also excels at stretching
with her head low and bum high
I tell her that we humans
call this position "downward dog"
she glares at me with narrowed eyes
and leaps to the top of her cat tree
where she chooses to ignore my insult
she closes her eyes in zen meditation
while I stand looking up at her
like a know-nothing novice seeking wisdom
from the enlightened master
on the mountaintop

(c) Debra She Who Seeks 2006

My Rare One

My Rare One and I have been a couple now for five and a half years, living together for three. She has many wonderful qualities, skills and attributes, including tolerance of my sometimes offbeat hobbies. Her name comes from the chorus of a beautiful old Scottish ballad called The Tiree Love Song:

Ha-ree ho-ro, my bonnie wee girl!
Ha-ree ho-ro, my fair one!
Will you come away with me, love,
To be my own, my rare one?

There's a great video of this song being sung by Denis Ryan (formerly of Ryan's Fancy) and Raylene Rankin (formerly of the Rankin Family) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFCAEopGBN8

Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

Today is the pagan festival of Mabon or the Autumn Equinox, when day and night are equal in length. Like the more mainstream festival of Thanksgiving, it is a harvest festival -- a time to celebrate the abundance in our lives and to express our gratitude to the Great Mother for her generosity. My favourite quotation about gratitude comes from the medieval Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'Thank You,' that would suffice." I think it captures better than anything what our correct relationship with the Divine should be.

You Must Have a Dream To Make It Come True

When I was young, I had many, many ambitions in life. Some have been realized and some not. But now that I'm middle-aged, my current ambition is to become a Crazy Cat Lady. What steps have I taken to fulfill this dream, you ask? I do have one cat already, Her Royal Highness (or HRH, as the Brits say). Now I just need a couple dozen more. I'm also working on my CCL wardrobe. So far I have (1) a T-shirt with a giant cat face on it, (2) a nightie bearing the logo "Crazy Cat Lady" and (3) a pair of brown capris with yellow cats all over them. It's a small start to the wonderfully appalling wardrobe I hope one day to have.

The Accidental Blogger

This blogging thing has caught me by surprise. I intended to start a blog a few months from now, when I had more time. But then I thought: what if one of the other gazillion bloggers on the internet has already used "She Who Seeks" as a blog name or starts using it before I get my blog started? So I checked it out and found that my desired blog name was not currently in use. Blogger.com then told me I could "register" the name. By the time I realized that "registration" meant setting up the actual blog, it was too late and I was in too far! Now I am The Accidental Blogger, thrown into the deep end before I was ready. Hmmm, sort of the story of my life, actually.

Typical, Really

I wanted my first blog post to be something brilliant and eye-catching, but I'm afraid this is it. Hopefully future posts will reach a higher standard!