I'm loving my do...do you too?

I am loving my hair! The cut is so versatile that I can wear it faux hawked, swept to either side, or in any number of other ways. I just colored it myself with two kits that came out looking like a natural fade among three to four shades...

Paper or Plastic?

I sent this message to many friends with a link forwarded from my friend Luis:

Until America joins the other countries who have banned the use and production of plastic bags, I'm going to ban them in my own life.
Maybe you'll agree to do the same after watching this presentation.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

If enough of us refuse to accept any more plastic bags, our voices will surely be heard!

My friend Pat responded:

cloth/reusable bags are clearly the way to go, but even the EPA says paper bags aren't necessarily better for the environment than plastic: it's certainly an interesting debate.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060426235724/

http://www.epa.gov/region1/communities/shopbags.html

http://www.reason.org/commentaries/smithheisters_20080417.shtml


My reply is:

Even after only reading the first two sentences of the first link you provided, I'd still choose paper over plastic if those were the only options.

A 40% savings of energy to produce plastic over paper is not that significant in my opinion. Especially when neither would need to be produced at all if we all switched to canvas bags. And the 80% less solid waste is completely irrelevant in light of the fact that it takes 1,000 years for those plastic bags to decompose, especially considering the affects that decomposition process has on the earth. And even though it only takes a paper bag one month to decompose, why do we even need to wait that long when we could just burn it? Though that would most likely release airborn toxins I don't know about.

All in all, I'd still choose to use fabric bags instead of paper or plastic.

Thanks for the links, Pat!

Sour Times - Join me in helping to make them sweet

It seems that the plague which befell us at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival this year has brought to the surface a lot of painful truths which we'd been trying to previously ignore. I know I am not the only one this is true for as many of my GM friends have told me otherwise. I had planned to lead a ritual in the Pine Barrens last Saturday in order to banish these negative and harmful energies from affecting us all, however the ritual did not occur. I was not in an emotional place to lead it on my own, and nobody stepped up to help. Therefore I am asking now if anyone is willing to lend their energies to this effort so that we can join forces in the search to find our smiles again.

At the end of last year, Jamie and I performed a ritual which included some magical work about working through our previously repressed emotions. Instead of continuing to ignore our feelings of betrayal, anger and resentment, we chose to acknowledge and accept them. Instead of just fighting off our fears and regrets, we chose to turn them to our advantage by working through them and accomplishing success by overcoming them. We had a powerful Winter season without any Seasonal Affective Disorder but with plenty of hard work and dark emotions coming to the surface.

I feel the time has come to do a similar ritual, but now I believe it would be best if all of my friends were involved. It seems that we are all going through some difficulties these days and could benefit from doing such difficult work on our own armed with the knowledge that we are all in it together. Here is what I propose...

Choose an object to represent the negativity you're currently experiencing. This object could be a photograph of yourself during a time when you felt particularly down, a piece of paper with some writing about how bad you've been feeling, a piece of string you've knotted to represent all the knots inside your gut, a gemstone that is special to you, etc.

Focus your energy surrounding these undesirable thoughts and feelings into your object. Whenever you are feeling down pour those emotions into your object. Rather than ignoring them, take a moment to put them into your object, then put the object down and move on physically and emotionally.

Perform a spell with me on a Saturday night (Saturn oversees protection and many other pertinent energies) either this coming Saturday, August 2nd when the moon is new, or in the hours before the next monthly on Saturday, August 23 when the moon is waning. Your items will be used during our magical work, and our energies will be focused together toward our common goal of healing.

Let me know if you're interested in participating in this magical work with me! I'll immediately send you a copy of the ritual I'm drafting so you can review it and offer any suggestions.

In Love and Light,
Reverend PLURall