Changing paths

Music

/ Yvonne Aburrow / 1 Comment

Changing Paths challenge day 24: Music

I love music, especially any piece where the artist really put their soul into it. This is often the case with the music of oppressed, displaced, and marginalized peoples.

I have very diverse tastes in music but some of my favourite genres are Cajun, klezmer, zydeco, blues, baroque, medieval and renaissance music, and protest songs.

I have recently been listening to Palestinian music and it is beautiful. Check out this list of Palestinian artists by Christina Hazboun from 2021.

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Festivals

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Changing Paths challenge day 23: Festivals

I love Pagan festivals and I am very glad that there’s one every six weeks or so, as it takes the pressure off of Yule. If you only celebrate Yule and Easter (and Thanksgiving in North America), there’s so much pressure to get it right and have a good time. But with Pagan festivals, if Yule doesn’t go so well or isn’t your thing, there’s another festival coming soon.

🎄❄️🐣🌸☀️🌾🍂🎃

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Feasts

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Changing Paths challenge day 22: feast

I love to have a feast (shared food / Pagan potluck) in sacred space, so that we are feasting with the gods. However it’s got a bit impractical with the numbers of people involved and so we tend to have our feast after circle these days.

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Solstice

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Changing Paths challenge day 21: solstice

The sun pauses on her journey
Around the horizon
Waiting for you to stop
To look around and see
The beauty of the world

The flowers and the hills and the trees
The sunsets and the butterflies
The mountains and the oceans
The laughter of children
Refaat’s kites sailing on the breeze

The kind old sun is waiting
For war and slaughter to cease
For limbs, so dear-achieved
Not to be shattered by bombs
But to dance in her kindly rays.

She waits for humanity to awaken
To our full humanity
Where we open our hearts to each other
The love shining from our eyes
For all beings, all of Nature.

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Life

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Changing Paths challenge day 16: life.

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” — Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou also said that none of us are free until we are all free. The bottom line is that everyone should be able not merely to survive but to thrive.

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The sky

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Changing Paths challenge 15: the sky.

The sky has a huge impact on my mood. If it’s blue with a few clouds, I’m happy. If it’s dramatic, I’m excited. If there’s a rainbow, I love it (especially the rainbow that appeared the day after Ireland voted for same sex marriage). If it’s grey and overcast, then I’m sad. If there’s a beautiful sunset, I’m awed. If I see the stars shining, I’m awed.

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My path

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Changing Paths challenge day 14: my path.

I don’t really describe my path as a spiritual path anymore. I think of it as an embodied path. My practice is to notice the beauty in the everyday: flowers, trees, music, the landscape, the sky, food, and poetry.

As The Charge of the Goddess says, all acts of love and pleasure are her rituals.

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Roots and wings

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Changing Paths Challenge day 13: Roots and wings

Today’s prompt is a reference to Carolyn McDade’s classic song, Spirit of Life, which contains the line “roots hold me close, wings set me free”.

My family roots are in nonconformist churches but there’s also a strong tradition of loving Nature. My Mum loved Nature and so did her Mum. I feel very strongly rooted in the chalk and flint hills of Hampshire and Sussex in England.

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