TwitterTink

I've been putting off Twitter for a long time, but I finally gave in. ;-) I've been following some people on Twitter, but didn't open an account. A friend convinced me it's easier to follow by having my own account. That's true, so... I'm twittering!
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A. Vogel workshop

The last week I've been in and out of bed / couch. At first I just had a sore throat, but later the rest of a nasty cold or flu was added. In between I've been doing things. :)

Last Friday I was invited to do the workshop "In balance" at the A. Vogel / Biohorma headquarters in Elburg. It was quite a drive and I wasn't feeling that well, but I really wanted to go! I arrived around 10am. One by one the participants came in. The welcome was very friendly and warm. All the Vogel people we encountered that day were like that. You could feel they really like their jobs and vouch for the Vogel products. The whole atmosphere felt very good.

After the welcome we were divided in two groups. My group first got a presentation about the company, how they work, the philosophy, some products and A. Vogel himself by a very enthusiastic man called Marcel Brienne (he starts talking when you visit the Dutch Vogel website). I already know and use Vogel products, but it was very interesting nevertheless. He had also brought some little jars with raw materials.

When he was finished a nice lady explained and helped us to make our own oils. There was a lot of stuff to choose from. I made two oils: the first from 80% almond oil / 20% jojoba oil with lavender, camomille and marigold, the second from 100% jojoba oil with thyme and rosemary. It was a lot of fun!

Next stop was the factory to take a look there. We got white coats and hats for hygiene. We have seen all the departments from processing to bottling with information and explanation by factory personnel. In another room a public health inspector was checking things.

Then it was time for lunch! The tables were full of delicious dressed rolls and other yummy things. After lunch we watched a short film, an introduction before we drove to the A. Vogel gardens. Everything was still covered in snow, but the gardener made the fields come alive while he told us all about 'his' gardens. I definitely want to go back in summer to see the gardens in bloom! The gardens are in a protected country estate, but always open to everyone. In the shop on the nearby farm we drank hot chocolate (or glühwein) before we drove back.

There were drinks and snacks to welcome us back. We sat for a while before it was time to go home. To my surprise we got a bag full of Vogel products and a Vogel umbrella as a goodbye gift. Wow, what a day! I really enjoyed myself and learned a lot in the process. The long drive home full of traffic jams couldn't even spoil the fun, although I was sooo glad when I got home!

Windmills

My country is a land of windmills. Of course you all know the old-fashioned beautiful windmills, but we also have a lot of the modern wind turbines. And there will be more to give us more energy in an enviromentally friendly way.
Last Friday I participated in a citizen's panel, that looked into locations to place a lot of new windmills (and replace old ones) on request of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. It is an ongoing project which started early 2009. The project manager gave an introductory talk about the plans and what was expected of us. Then we split up in groups to discuss four of the possible locations from a citizen's prospective. Several experts were present and available for questions. Wind energy is a good thing, but of course there are pros and cons. Our country isn't very big and when you rule out areas of dense population, nature reserves, airports and flight routes there isn't that much left. It was a very interesting afternoon and it feels good to be a part of all this. Nothing is decided yet, but we and our suggestions were taken very seriously.

End of the aftercare group

In August I started an aftercare group for people with an eating disorder with Chantal in Haarlem. Unfortunately we had to call it quits last Monday. The group we started with said goodbye one by one and we couldn't find enough new participants to keep the group going.. We did all we could think of to promote the group and to make it known, but the response wasn't enough.

In December we had 3 people. Then one of them stopped to get more intensive therapy. One other was very enthusistic, but after one cancellation we didn't hear from her again. I tried to contact her by mail, sms, phone... nothing! I really don't understand; I hope nothing serious happened.

And so we ended up with only one participant. When I contacted Chantal about it, she had more bad news. She has to stop because of health issues of her own. I know another woman that wants to step in, but into what...? The foundation of the group is gone. We could only pull the plug...

I feel disappointed. Everyone always says there aren't enough aftercare groups in our area, but when there is one there aren't enough participants. I know I did my best, but I'm sad about it nevertheless. It was the right decision to stop, but it feels wrong...

COT #30: getting warm

CATS ON TUESDAY is a group of cat lovers

who share pictures and/or stories about their cats once a week,
hosted by Gattina.

It's been a while since I posted for Cats On Tuesday. After a lot of dog-talk it's cat-time again!
Outside it's cold, colder than usual. We are having snow, hail, glazed frost... and there's more to come. The cats have their own methods to keep warm!

Freyja claims the central heating in the kitchen.

Bastet snuggles up to Arwen.

When Maia doesn't join Freyja on the radiator, she's on a pile of fleece blankets.

Unconscious Mutterings (week 362)

click image to visit the UM-site

365 - days in a year
Tombstone - rest in peace
Dumb - ass
Intrusive - pushy
Fat - rolls
Axe - Boom Chicka Wah Wah
Planned - order
Spike - Buffy
Bleach - hair, teeth
Shopkeeper - customers

New Year

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve, just the two of us and the pets. Foofur is scared to death of fireworks since some brat threw a squib after him in his first year. The cats don't pay much attention to the fireworks. Arwen noticed it but wasn't afraid during the day, just when it all started together at midnight she squeaked a bit. We turned the music on TV louder when we went out to watch the fireworks.

So... the New Year has started. I don't like looking back on 2009, too much painful memories. I hope 2010 will be better in every way. My biggest wish is for Ron to find the right job soon. It's about time and he really needs and deserves it: a new challenge, an ego boost and a nice paycheck.

In the new year I'm taking up a whole new challenge on my path. After the letdown with the Temple of Ara I needed a new perspective. I found it thanks to our Lowland Systers fairy goddess mother. She brought me into contact with a friend of hers, who'll be the teacher and mentor in my training of Alexandrian Wicca. It feels very good and I'm really looking forward to it!

Welcome to 2010!

Happy New Year!!!

May you be blessed with
warmth in your home,
love in your heart,
peace in your soul
and joy in your life.

My year according to Facebook

Facebook has a nice application called My Year In Status, that makes a collage out of a random set of statuses you posted on Facebook in 2009. Mine turned out like this:

(click image to see it bigger in a new window)

Holidays

Christmas is over. Finally a bit of a white christmas this year. All the snow is gone now, but the weatherpeople say 2010 will start very cold in The Netherlands. There is even talk about an Elfstedentocht soon. I hope so. We'll see!

We tried to put up a tree. Normally we put it up and decorate it immediately. This time we put the tree up in the evening with the intent to decorate the next day. When we got up the next morning the cats (Freyja in the lead I'm sure) had ruined the tree. By a miracle Arwen wasn't very interested in the tree. We didn't have time to decorate unfortunately, so we patched up the tree as much as possible. The next morning Freyja & Co did it again... Enough is enough; we decided to clear away the tree until next year!

A week before christmas Ron got sick again. Not really a flu or something, but he had headaches, stomach- and intestines trouble. Only on christmas day he felt a bit better. Just in time, because we had invited Joke to come over for boxing day. Needless to say we missed Leo a lot, but still we spent a lovely day together.

Now we just have New Year's Eve and then the holidays are over. In Dutch we call it Oudejaarsavond (Old Year's Eve); strange huh? January 1st is New Year's Day here too.
Ron and I will stay home for the pets. It's Arwen first New Year's Eve. Although she doesn't overreact at fireworks when we hear it now and then, we aren't sure how she will react to a lot of fireworks at once. The cats aren't really interested. Foofur is afraid, but as long as he is near me he is okay. I'll give him Reiki like I did last year; it helped calm him down.

Happy Holidays!

This is our x-mas card for this year. As they are sent some time ago and most people will have received it, I can show it here. We made the picture on the first snow day over here. Arwen loves snow, but that was to be expected. She had loads of fun in the woods. It wasn't easy to let her sit still with the reindeer tiara. It took some time and patience, but we succeeded. :-)

~*~ Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!!! ~*~

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve... I'm feeling melancholy...
I miss the people who won't be there for yet another christmas...
I miss the ones that won't be there for the first time...
I love you, I miss you...

Someone is missing at Christmas
Someone I've loved all my life
Someone I played with and laughed all night long
Someone I think of when I hear that song

Someone is missing at Christmas
Someone has left me alone
Someone so close even though we’re apart
Someone who’d finish the sentence I’d start

Someone whose love is my favorite gift
Someone whose presence is my Christmas wish
Someone who always was here
Someone is missing this year

Candlelit snapshots of Christmas gone by
You in your favorite chair
Memories like snowflakes melt in my eyes
I look and you’re not sitting there

Someone whose love is my favorite gift
Someone whose presence is my Christmas wish
Someone is missing at Christmas
Wait… someone is touching my heart…

Someone has heard me and answered my call
Someone I love is not missing at all
Someone is with me at Christmas
Someone’s right here in my heart
Someone I love is with me this Christmas
And will be each Christmas to come!

Listen to the song here.

Merry Yule!!!

Blessed Yule(tide), Happy Winter Solstice

to you and yours!

Pagan Sunday

Last Sunday I had a pagan day! :-)

In the afternoon I went to the PFI pub moot in Zeist. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces, some of which I hadn't seen for quite some time! The theme was "A Day for Doreen", looking back on the Charge of the Goddess Conference in London on September 13. It was to honour and remember Doreen Valiente, 10 years after her death in September 1999. I would have loved to be there myself, but that wasn't possible so this was second best. People who have been there shared their stories and Morgana told us more about Doreen and her Charge of the Goddess. She let us hear a multilingual version of the Charge spoken by native speakers, very impressing!

On the way back from Zeist to Amsterdam (to bring two friends home) the weather was very very bad: storms with heavy rain. It was tiring for me to drive, so I was glad we arrived! I decided to stay in Amsterdam; there was no time to bring the car home. Luckily I found a parking place near the location of the shamanic training. Later in the evening when I went home I wasn't that lucky... Someone had smashed the car in the rear on the driver's side. A lot of damage (light unit and bumper) and no sign of the perpetrator. Grrr....

The shamanic training was very interesting again. We did a trance journey in which we focussed on a goal that we didn't achieve this year. Something we really wanted and tried to do, but somehow didn't seem feasible. Then we transferred it into a little candle and let it burn on the altar in the middle of our circle. As a group we did two rounds of blessing the candles.
After the break we made a journey to the realm of the elves (Alfheim). I stayed on the border and later retreated. The energy in Alfheim was too fast for me at this time. It was still a special experience!

My weekend

I've had quite an interesting weekend! Saturday started at 8am with a lesson aguajogging. I've done that for quite some years. Joke has aquaspinning lessons with me, but also continued the aquajogging. This time they could bring someone for free. It was fun!

In the afternoon Wonder picked me up to go to a lecture in bookshop Donner (book paradise of 6000 m2) in Rotterdam. The lecturer was Jacob Slavenburg: cultural historian, authority about gnosticism and related issues, translator of the complete Nag-Hammadi writings). The theme was his new book that appeared on November 1st: "Het Grote Boek der Apokriefen" (The Great Book of the Apocrypha), a comprehensive work in which virtually all Christian apocryphal and secret writings from the first four centuries have been incorporated. A very interesting subject by a great lecturer!

Sunday I attended the third evening of the shamanic training. Linda had invited a female friend she has worked with for some time. Our group was asked to do a soul retrieval ritual with and for her, a cross-over between shamanic ritual and family /systemic constellations. I had an active part. It was very impressive and most importantly I think we helped her in her process. Afterwards I felt tired but also satisfied.