Ex Penna

German imports!  :)

Ending the year well is never an easy task.  Maybe that's why I always stuff so much work into the month of December.  The effort I generally put into my home-life was rewarded with more hard work, preparing for our always massive celebration of Yule.  Though work it was--and with the same stress-inducing capability as any other--it was happy work filled with the pleasure of abundance.  Our table was as full as our house and everywhere were lights, music, and food.  Because this was a very special year (my brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Germany for the holidays), I was inspired to do even more!  I'm not terribly good at buying presents but I love to put on a party!

Me and enough dinner for 20 people. Instead, I served 7.  lol

Our ritual celebration is, by sharp contrast, almost quiet.  We rung in the longest night with a blazing fire in the cauldron, which in turn began the lighting of our annual handmade Yule log.  The blessings of each of the coming year's 12 months were invoked, one by one, and the whole of it was admired when it was all aglow with as much fondness as I believe we'll look on 2013 when it's all over in December.  An always raucous retelling of the story of Mother Berchta (delightlfully overacted, in our home, as a play with costumes) lightened the mood and we all enjoyed a little chaos within the well-worn boundaries of our ritual, our family, our home, our season. 

There is a business to big holidays, one that must be overseen with care and lots of effort.  But there really is nothing better than toiling for later joy--yours and others.  In baking, there is a sense of the pleasure of eating; in hanging decorations, the elation of a dark house glowing with lights and cheer; in making or buying presents, the excitement of opening them.  Those who put on such affairs do so because they can enjoy the preparation as though the day of its unwrapping had come.  And the more paper you put onto the big present of a holiday, the more there is to take off when it comes.  Putting on all those details can be quite a big job (or, rather, what seems like hundreds of little jobs!) but there is pleasure to be had in the work of it, if you're looking right.

Lit on Yule, the Log will be burned with the tree at the end of the season and the candles burned in turn on their month.

That's how I feel about my shop.  I have many projects already in place in my life (and, honestly, I always have.  It is my habit to celebrate the completion of one thing by taking on two more) and I don't always manage a perfect balance or keep a perfect schedule, but I love the process of trying.  The spark of an idea, piecing it all together, exploring options and interesting twists, seeing it complete and ready to meet the world ... each time I take on work--be it restocking, making custom items, or completely new listings--there is the pleasure of knowing that someone somewhere will see it as just the thing that they've been looking for.  

And now that we've entered the New Year and the busy season is waning, I see all the work yet to be done.  New items for you to view at your leisure from the virtual shelves of my shop, but also a great deal of magic that has been waiting.  As a professional witch, I do a lot of magic for others--sometimes purely because it needs done and not because I'm being paid.  I know it is against the morality of some folks but I cast spells for others unawares just as part of my practice.  If I'm planning two spells for this moon sign, what's one more?  It's good practice for me and a benefit to those I care about. 

This month I'm working on three (and it may be you!)-- a better business spell, a healing, and some money luck.  Each of the recipients knows well what I do, all could very much use a hand, but none asked for it outright.  To me the issue is a simple one.  It's raining and I've got two umbrellas; must I wait until you notice me standing there and call my name through the downpour?  Or may I just pop it open, hold it out for you, and go on my way?  It's still up to you to take it to shelter yourself.  It's still your job to walk to you destination.  My one act of generosity didn't turn you into an infant who can no longer help himself, nor did it ruin any lessons to be learned from your plight.  Maybe it taught you something that can be hard to learn--that sometimes people do nice things just because they wanted to do them.

Remember, Random Acts of Kindness Day is February 17

Maybe this, too, is a sort of toiling for joy.  There's little practical aid I can offer in the circumstances of these three people.  I'm no doctor and while feeling moderately secure financially, I haven't got what it takes to invest in a business nor to keep another's household afloat.  But I can offer magic and even when I'm busy and have work of my own to be done I can work for their causes as well.  And it makes me happy as any holiday--hectic but accomplished in the business of sharing joy.