(Before that discussion it hadn't ever occurred to me to have a pagan New Year on a separate occasion from the secular one. I'd heard it mentioned that Samhaim is considered the witchy new year, but that holiday -although one of my favourites- doesn't feel like the start of a new year to me. So I picked something different)
I don't always manage to remember, as by that time of the year I'm deep into the daily grind of work (and it's also beginning to transition into our busiest time by the start of February, so I can be heavily distracted by then).
This year, for instance, we we had a lot of comicons and such at the start of February (and I'm officially a part of the same cosplay group as my spouse now, so that means being 'on duty' with charity fundraising activities all day long -- both a good thing and at the same time something of a nuisance).
Being busy with both work and events meant that I was too tired to plan a celebration at the beginning of last month.
So this year I've instead selected the first of March, i.e. today, as a substitute.
I've decorated, in the form of a string of blue and green lights (they were originally Christmas lights but the yellow and red ones packed up, which makes them perfect for my purposes as blue's my favourite colour and of course green's nicely representative of the coming Spring).
One year I made a little string of daisies out of craft foam, so I'm going to hunt those out to decorate the living room light fitting (if I can find them...).
On my pagan holidays I very often do a bit of my day job work (despite it being a Saturday) because it's work which is of benefit to the local community).
I also aim to do a bit of 'e-volunteering' on the Zooniverse site later, if I leave myself enough time (again, because it's work which is of benefit to wider society).
I plan to have a bit of a ritually cleansing shower after that. (This consists of including the four elements, by opening the windows wide for air, lighting a candle for fire, and collecting the first bit of -cold- shower water to give to the house plants for earth. And of course the shower itself for water.)
I'll then include a bit more self-care, in the form of all the personal grooming types of tasks I tend to neglect, such as moisturising, maybe painting my nails for the first time this year, and so on.
Starting the spring cleaning would be an awesomely good move, as my de-cluttering efforts have waned a bit latterly and I need to get back on it. That's maybe a task for tomorrow, if I have the energy. Even just some regular cleaning and household tasks would be good (and thereby inevitably ruin those nicely painted fingernails!).
Not the most exciting of blog posts, but -given that it's been well over a year since I last posted anything at all- at least I can feel a sense of accomplishment for having posted something.
Snowdrops photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash
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