This will come as a surprise to NO ONE, but here it goes: I am not the type of witch you see on YouTube, IG, or any of those other sites. And I have a feeling that most of you aren't, either.
Yes, I would absolutely adore being able to wake up quietly, do a morning meditation and/or ritual, prepare a magical brew of herbs, sweetened with local honey, and sip it at a lace-covered, crystal-adorned table, surrounded by houseplants. And yet...
What's stopping me? Well, for one thing, a lot of people have made showing carefully choreographed and curated snippets into their lives into an actual living. This is what they do for work. Everything looks amazing and perfect because that's their job, their livelihood.
I, on the other hand, have no presence. I'm not cute. My house is never neat because I can only fight so much against the 'gorbage mornster'. I am anxious, I am stressed, I am very rarely dressed (not true but it rhymes). I get up at 5:30 to get ready for work. There is no time for a leisurely breakfast. I shower at night and am lucky to drink an entire cup of coffee before it's time to hit the road. And no, I am absolutely not getting up any earlier than that except for the month of Ramadan because I work for people who observe it and our days begin and end earlier.
You want to know if there's a point, don't you? Well, there is. And here it is: I have a bad habit of beating myself up for not doing enough. I don't read cards enough. I don't do anything for the sabbats or esbats most of the time. I have no witchy daily routine to speak of. And as I said earlier, I suspect a lot of us are in the same rut. If we have the time, we don't have the energy, and vice-versa.
We know better than to compare ourselves to those we see online. Consider this your reminder: They are doing a job. Do they really, truly do all of those things when the camera isn't rolling? I neither know nor care enough to speculate. I just want to remind all of us that we're not bad for getting busy with the duties society as ascribed to us so we can "earn" a living. We're not less-than because we don't cast a circle very single day. We're tired. We're all very, very tired. Tired of this pandemic and all the concerns it brings with it - health(care), school, work, social time, housing - many of us may have never faced such insecurities before. This is some shit. It's okay to be caught up in survival mode right now.
But what if we made a plan to get out of some of that? What if we had some tiny steps, some itsy-bitsy goals, miniscule changes that could add up and give us some of that witchy spark back? I have ideas. I've been keeping notes. Not much has been done as of yet (see notes on pandemic and gorbage mornster).
But what if we got together and supported each other as we achieved these little sand grain goals? Soon we'd have a whole beach to ourselves. Yes, I am going to say it: we could be sand-witches. I'm so sorry. Please don't leave. But seriously, is anyone out there ready, willing, and able to participate in little ways to reclaim our witchiness...es? Lemme hear from ya!
