Queen of Swords

Taken from otter

How old are you?
54 - but I don't feel anywhere to that age

Tattoos?
One on my left upper arm: the runes Dagaz, Jera, and Mannaz, which are a combination of LM's and my initials

Ever hit a deer?
No, thank goodness

Ridden in an ambulance?
Once.

Sang karaoke?
Nope.

Ice skated?
I had lessons when I was a small child, inspired by Peggy Fleming, but I didn't do very well. I much prefer roller skating.

Ridden a motorcycle?
Not on my own.

Stayed in hospital?
Oh, yes. . . I've had multiple surgeries, and a caesarean birth which resulted in a two week stay.

Skipped school?
Only in college

Last phone call?
Wolfling

Last text from?
Wolfling

Watched someone die?
LM and my father.

Pepsi or Coke?
Diet Coke, which I drink far too much of

Favorite pie?
Chocolate cream

Favourite pizza?
Pepperoni and ham

Favourite season?
Fall

Broken bones?
Never

Received a ticket?
No. I've been stopped three times, but never ticketed

Favorite color?
Jewel tones: purple, royal blue, scarlet, emerald

Sunset or sunrise?
The stars

A couple of my friends have recently posted the "10 Things I've Done (That You Haven't)" meme.

It's been a couple of years since I've done this one, and I'm not sure whether to be reassured or concerned that I'm having a hard time coming up with a good list.

On the one hand, I could feel frustrated that I'm not living an interesting enough life to generate unique experiences. On the other, I seem to be in good company with other people who share what might once have been unique experiences. Some of the more "way out" things I might put down aren't unique among my friends.

I'm going to continue to ponder this and see if I can come up with 10.

Comes around every so often, most recently seen with eryn999

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Anonymous queries okay.

Via mamadar and others


1. What is something that people are currently “into” that you just don’t get or appreciate?

Twitter

2. What is something that really hoists your sail that other people might feel “ho-hum” about?

What does "hoist your sail" mean? I'm going to take it as a sign of enthusiasm, as in "gets me going in a positive way."

Esoteric spiritual practices.

Granted, there are more than few folks on my f-list who share my interest, but it's something most people in my offline life don't find particularly interesting.

3. Favorite song to sing in the shower or car?

In the car: "Johnny and June."

I don't sing in the shower.

4. A really great salad must have this ingredient:

Shrimp -- or some other tasty lean meat

5. What advice in a nutshell would you give to new bloggers?

Be honest. Use a pseudonym if you must, but be honest.

6. What was the alternate name that your parents almost named you? Do you wish they had chosen it instead of the one they gave you?

My mother wanted to name me Candel (Kan-DELL).
Had I been a boy, my father wanted to name me after his father: Herbert Clarence

I feel very grateful to have dodged both those bullets.

7. What in your life are you waiting for?

Reunion

8. You get a package in the mail. What's in it?

One or more books from Amazon.

9. Today–what song represents you?

( Just Get Through This Night, by Styx )


10. What is one thing that blogging has taught you about yourself?

The parts of myself which I'd kept most secret over the years are some of the things people here cherish most about me. It's by being honest about who I truly am that has enabled me to make some of the best friendships of my life.

An oldie but a goodie:

Say "words!" in the comments and I'll respond with 5 words that I associate with you. Write something about them in your LJ.

thomryng chose the five qualities which I have referred to from time to time as my "ethical liferaft." I constructed it after my existential crisis (during my sophomore year of college) left me in a state where I felt I could no longer use the Bible as the basis for my ethics if I was to be intellectually honest. I spent a lot of time thinking and journaling about what guideliness I could use which would be flexible but not without meaning. I wanted to know what qualities I should strive for in order to live a life in a way that would be good for myself and those around me.

The qualities I came up with, the words Thom chose, are: Wisdom, Integrity, Courage, Tenderness, Humor

Wisdom
"Considered experience." I have always had a strong bias toward intellectual knowledge, but this took me beyond book-learnin' to learning from my mistakes. I was emerging from a very sheltered childhood and adolescence, and was embracing experience. I had come to consider innocence to be a "negative virtue" and was looking forward to doing things I would have denied myself in the past. However I wanted to be sure that my experiences, whatever they turned out to be, would have more value than the immediate sensations. It seemed to me to be a poor thing to be either so sheltered that one understood nothing but what they had read, or to have had many experiences but not become wiser, especially if mistakes were involved.

Integrity
Honesty with self and others.
This goes hand-in-hand with self-awareness for me now, but I hadn't started thinking about self-awareness back then.
To be honest, I haven't always done well in this area, although I've gotten better in the last five or six years. I used to lie rather easily to avoid confrontation or to obscure a selfish decision. I've come to value the strength of relationships built on mutual honesty, and to recognize that lying is pretty much always a sign that something is fundamentally wrong. Being honest with myself and others can be painful, but is ultimately for the best -- although I can not claim that I always live up to that aspiration.

Courage
Doing what I know to be right, despite fear.
Facing the fear and doing it anyway.
I have spent most of my life feeling like I become frightened more easily than most people. I admire people with courage, and it's something I wish I had more of. It's always boggled me that others often perceive me as being courageous. I won't say I've never shown courage, but it's usually the last thing on my mind when people attribute it to me.

As I've grown older, this has taken on even more urgent meaning. As I've written here before, I've come to believe that many of the world's evils: violence, prejudice, oppression, etc. have their basis in fear. This can be fear of the Other, fear of starvation or of being harmed, fear of seeing one's family hurt. . . Fear motivates us to commit and to justify acts which we would never consider if we felt secure.

Tenderness
Dealing gently with others.
I could not bring myself to aspire to "love" everyone, but I felt that it was important to treat others well, and gently. Besides, a lot of people claim to love others whom they treat very badly.

Humor
I can't take credit for this one. It was suggested to me by a wise older woman who I worked with the summer after my crisis. A sense of humor can carry a person through quite a bit. Being able to laugh usually makes everything better -- or at least more bearable. I always know it's a bad sign when I lose my sense of humor.

burningskyfire gave me words. Let me know if you want some.

Death
I spent 42 years virtually untouched by death. Now, what strikes me the most is the finality of it. Whether you're talking about literal physical death or the metaphorical death of something, there is no going back. I feel very strongly about death with dignity, and the right of a person to choose to take his or her own life painlessly rather than be forced to endure weeks or months or years physical pain and/or mental degeneration. I both understand and deplore modern culture's fear and denial of death in all forms. As an Underworld priestess, it is part of my job to help people face metaphorical death and use it as an opportunity for transformation and healing. I would like to become skilled at being a death midwife so I can provide assistance for the physical death passage as well.

Veil
Currently, the veils of Qabalistic tradition are what first come to mind: especially the veil below Tiphareth, which must be opened to progress to the higher levels of the Tree of Life. I also think of veils when I think of the need to be selective about what I reveal about myself and my practices. I believe that part of my job is to be open about my path, so that others can be served by my struggles and insights. But I've learned that some things are too sacred to share. I've also learned that to serve different communities effectively, I need to selectively veil other aspects of myself so they do not get in the way of making a connection.

Counsel
I am grateful for the wise counsel I receive from others, especially my teacher and certain friends. I try to be a source of such counsel for others, trying to be aware of the limitations of my own understanding. I strive to give my daughter good counsel suited to her own understanding, without intefering too much in the process of her coming to her own conclusions. There's a delicate balance there for a parent to respect.

Devotion
It can be a noun or a verb. "Action motviated by love" is the phrase that suddenly comes to me. To love or to have other warm fuzzy feelings but not act on them in a meaningful way either betrays one's self as well as the beloved, or shows that the "love" being professed is actually something else. This is true whether one's beloved is a human, a deity, or some other being.

Joy
An emotion I have felt too little of since LM's death.
Just typing that brings tears to my eyes.

Via lupabitch:

One little compliment or affirmation can make you feel amazing. So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are pretty, then post this in your own journal. Once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag, and when you are feeling down, just go to that entry and it will remind you how great you are!

Comments are going to be screened, and anonymous is okay.

Via scinnlaeca -- who also provided tech support!

I might have tweaked this a bit to show different icons if I'd had more time to play with the code. . .

( Behind a cut due to size and one potentially NSW image of a hand on a bare bottom )

Via pathdancer

( Cut for a) length, b) Teh Woo, c) Unabashed Sentimentality )

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