The Longest Night

      Last night, we attended a beautiful Solstice Ritual at our church.  It was something of a culminating point for our Earth-Centered Spirituality group.  Our friend PaganGuy and I have been fighting the board at our church to recognize and incorporate this group for about a year.  Many, if not most, UU churches have Pagan groups - usually (but not always) CUUPs, Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, groups.  But this church is rather small and homogenous, and many long standing members of the congregation were worried that our forming this group would change the "flavor," if you will, of our church. 

      Well, it probably will, but the church is growing, and the flavor is changing with or without us.  After much peaceful struggling and trudging forward, we are finally a recognized official group within the church, and while Solstice was not our first ritual, it was our first ritual under our new official covenant.

     And it was a huge hit.  Attendance was very high, and the ritual was absolutely magical.  It included a visit from the Holly King/Father Yule and walking the labrinth*.  At the center of the labrinth, each participant received a rune from the Holly King, a portant for the coming year.  I received Othila.

      I haven't yet uploaded any pictures from the ritual, but I did get a couple of cute ones of Flintstone on my phone afterward.  And, because they came out of my phone looking aweful, I caved and did a little photo doctoring.  Which only proves, once again, that I should leave my photos well enough alone.  Still, Flintstone is so adorable in his Solstice jammies:

      Tonight, we're celebrating the Solstice at home, reading A Visit to Mother Winter and making Mother Winter's Gingerbread house.  MacGyver and I will be laughably trying staying up all night, symbolically keeping the Goddess company as she gives birth to the new born Sun, who we will welcome at sunrise.  Punky will be sleeping with a dream satchet (to include her Rune) under her pillow for portant dreams.

      In a major Pagan fail, I realized we actually should have done this last night.  I knew the Solstice was on the 22nd this year,  but I never bothered to check the time, and it was actually at 12:30am today, meaning the longest night was last night.  Oh well. 

      I am so far behind on everything right now.  The other attorney in my section had to leave earlier in the week for a family emergency, leaving me with doubled cases all week and THEN we got slammed with clients.  My office is ridiculous right now.  My stacks of cases are everywhere, amidst a chaos of unwrapped gifts, paper, and ribbon.

      Because I still haven't wrapped half the presents for Christmas morning.  And I think we're still short some stocking stuffers, too.

      Oh, and I realized we need to get my mom at least one more gift.

       And the kids never made their crafts for the grandparents, so we need to do that, too.  We had friends over for an impromptu dinner party the night we had been planning to do crafts.  It was wonderful, but a little hectic in a week I'm already so far behind.

      And some people will be getting holiday cards around New Years (if they're lucky).

      And I should be on my way home from work now, but here I sit, typing a blog when I should be doing 65 million other things.

      And there was something particular about the holidays that I wanted to put in this post, and I can't remember what it was.

      I am so excited about the holidays!  But so stressed, too!

      Ok, really, I'm not that stressed.  I'm not really an easily ruffled person.  But I'm not thrilled with how far behind I am.

      Man, I wish I could remember what this post was supposed to be about . . .

       HAPPY SOLSTICE ALL!

* Our church meeting room has a large labrinth for walking meditation on the floor.