Monthly Archives: October 2012

Blessed Samhain!

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It’s that time of year again… The veil between the worlds has grown thin and our thoughts turn to the ancestors (whether by blood or by belief)… We honour those who have gone before and ask that they share their wisdom with us for the new year…

While I miss the large-scale Samhain gatherings of my past, I’m comfortable with the solitary practice I’m currently engaged in. It’s a low-key, respect and remember holiday for me. I’ve got some specific questions to be asking this year – and looking for some support in the challenges ahead – so I anticipate lighting some extra candles. I’m mourning, because that’s what I need to do now, but I’m also planning for what comes next.

Blessings to all, and Happy New Year!

On Falling

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Cause when you’re falling / I can’t tell which way is down
When you’re falling / I can’t tell which way is down
I keep seeing all those things
My feet don’t touch the ground
(Afro Celt Sound System, via PaganRadioNetwork)

The first snow is falling. The Equinox trappings have been cleared from the alter, and a single candle is lit to mark the passage from one sacred moment to another. The alter – truly a family one, now that Xander is starting his journey on the path – will soon be covered in photos, poems and mementoes of those who have gone before us. Our list grows every year, and even so there are moments of gratitude that this name or that soul has not yet passed to the next world.

For me, this season is not only about mourning the ancestors, but also for mourning what could have been. This is especially sharp for me at the moment as my professional life has been rocked by change so deep and scarring that I don’t know what comes next.

When someone is mourning, we try to comfort them. At some point the comfort becomes discomfort – Why are you still sad? – and we’re left to fall on our own. We learn to hide the sadness within ourselves, to act as if everything is fine.

Everything is not fine.

The first snow continues to fall.

Which way is down?

Feminist Foremother: Ada Lovelace

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“The Origins of Lovelace” – http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/

If you’re reading this, thank Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer.

As a feminist fore-mother, she’s an inspiration to many women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. So much so that there’s a whole site dedicated to telling these women’s stories – Finding Ada – especially on Ada Lovelace Day (aka today).

As a self-professed geeker girl, and someone who can’t go more than 2 minutes without checking Twitter, I also owe so much to Ada and every other women working in these fields. (Awesome woman like Tara Brown, my best friend of 25+ years, who teaches at Red River Community College and get rave reviews from her students. There’s a good chance Tara’s going to kill me for posting this, but what are BFFs for if not to brag incessantly about each other?)

So join me in raising a (virtual) glass to Tara, Ada and every other woman in the STEM fields, and may you have a Happy Ada Lovelace Day wherever you are!

She Changes (On Collaboration)

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In his [Ulrich Beck’s] view, if sovereignty is understood as the capacity of a given country to influence the problems of the world on behalf of its citizens, then it is only by engaging in international cooperation, by networking, that states can actually become sovereigns in the global risk society. (Castells, 2010, 364)

It seems backward: in order to have autonomy, you need to find ways to collaborate with others. Our society is no longer about the individual; it’s about the group, the network that we create together. To create is to change.

She Changes Everything She Touches.

If we don’t change what we’re doing, or how we’re doing it, then we can’t create anything new. It doesn’t matter what level you’re working at. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do. If you’re not changing, you’re not creating.

And Everything She Touches Changes.

If you’re not ready to collaborate, then say so – and let the rest of us get on with it already. It’s a big world and we’ve got a lot of creating to do.

The (Network) Structure of Occupy

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I’m working on a paper for POLI 580 today, and this little video popped up in my Twitter feed explaining the network structure of Occupy – just as my paper talks about the network structure of politics on the Internet. Sometimes, life is just like that.

And from my paper:

The networked society has changed how people interact with each other, and those that “fold technology into their lives” (Castells, 11) are most successful in making new connections as well as reinforcing the old. The networked society is not isolationist or antisocial; it is made up of multiple points of connection for individuals.

Now, back to my paper…..

(Wiccan) Prison Chaplain(s) Update

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Well, there’s an update on a story I blogged about last month – Wiccan Prison Chaplin? Nope.

The federal government is cancelling the contracts of all non-Christian chaplains at federal prisons, CBC News has learned.

The 20 part-time chaplains will be let go and their duties picked up by 80 full-time chaplains, all but one of whom are Christian, and the remaining 80 part-time Christian chaplains.

That’s anyone of a non-Christian faith: Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Wiccan… it doesn’t matter what you believe, or what the Christian faith thinks of your path, that`s the only option you have. Maybe someone could get the mysterious “Office of Religious Freedom” to weigh in on the situation?

Caring in Community

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It’s been a busy week, work-wise, as I’ve been deeply engaged in our own Senior Centres Week activities or supporting events held at other organizations. Last night I was privileged to speak at Senior Care – Who Cares?, an event co-sponsored by the Calgary Seniors Resource Society and Public Interest Alberta. The full text of my speech is online; here’s an excerpt:

There is a tension in non-profit work between the quantitative – counting numbers, calculating statistics – and the qualitative – the anecdotal parts of our work that have so much meaning to individuals. The relationship between two people, whatever their role, is not something that can be forced, nor can it be ignored. In a senior centre, there is an increasing tension between building of relationships and completing administrative duties.

Working in the area of community development and trying to create new ways of engaging everyone regardless of age or state continues to bring up this kind of tension. I don’t subscribe to a client-worker relationship model, or believe that any one person has all the answers. I do believe that each of us should be recognized for our skills, talents, and abilities as long as we are using them for the good of all. I believe that the three-fold Goddess, where Maiden, Mother and Crone all have an distinct but equal role, is the model we should be using in engaging people in our communities. And I believe that a complete community includes all of us. Blessed Be!