Posted on Friday, 25th January 2008 by Maritzia

I don’t usually get too political on this blog, but today I am.

The Senate has passed the bill providing an extension to the warrantless wiretapping and providing immunity to the telecommunications companies that provided information to the government illegally!

Write to your Congressman and make clear that you do not want the House passing the same bill. Then write to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and make clear the same things.

I made clear in my statements that I was totally against compromising the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Actually, I was quite eloquent. Too bad I can’t remember now what I wrote then *laughs*.

Anyway, get your pens out, boys and girls (or your keyboards as the case may be). This is democracy in action. Stand up for your rights and freedoms!

Posted in Political, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Sunday, 6th January 2008 by Maritzia

I’m already slacking on my resolution to post here more, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been down with the flu all week, and let me tell you, it’s a nasty strain this week. That’s why I haven’t posted this little gem for you yet.

Obama’s Iowa Victory Speech

I’m so thrilled with the Senator’s victory in Iowa. It’s beyond even what I’d been hoping for. This will really throw momentum into the campaign! Enjoy the speech. The man is a great orator.

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Posted on Sunday, 30th December 2007 by Maritzia

As one of my goals for the coming year is to work more with the Tarot and become more familiar with interpretations, I decided to once again do a reading for the year.

The card I drew for January was the 7 of Swords, which in the couple of books I have seems to represent opposition, especially opposition through sneakiness.  This pretty well intrigued me, mostly because even though I’m fairly intuitive, I have trouble reading social cues.  My shrink years ago said I had aspects of autism in my personality.  So, I decided to do a simple Past Present Future spread for January.

Guess what came up as the first card.  No, go ahead….guess….

Yep, that’s right….7 of Swords.  I was still at a bit of a loss on this one, so I went out to the internet and looked up various interpretations for this card.  The first link that came up when I googled it was this page from learntarot.com.  The first set of interpretations surrounding running away was me to a T.  It probably sums up my emotional past better than anything I’ve ever seen.  I’ve always been an avoider, a procrastinator, someone who runs away rather than face a confrontation, all the while worrying desperately about that confrontation.  I’ll take the easy way out until I can screw up the courage to actually deal with the situation.  And, of course, as soon as I confront whatever it is, I find it wasn’t nearly the issue I had blown it up to be in my mind.  I’m actually much more capable than I usually believe myself to be. 

So, Seven of Swords makes perfect sense if I appy the card to my own past, rather than just the past of a particular situation.  One of the things I love about the tarot is it can really lead you down paths in your mind that you don’t usually take on your own.  It’s a great meditative and self-analytical tool.

So…the second card, representing the Present, was the Empress, reversed.  She represents the birth of a new project, or in reverse, could represent the lack of proper application of self to a project.  I actually have several things I’m looking at and working on at the moment.  Mark and I would like to become foster parents to throwaway teens at some point, once his immigration is complete.  I’m also trying to become more active with my blog here and possible start a couple of side blogs on topics I care about.  I’m trying to be more consistent with my work with the tarot and learn to interpret more fluently.  And, of course, I have always been one to not apply myself completely to projects…to start and not finish.  So perhaps this card is a warning?  I need to pay attention to those things that are important to me.  No slacking if I want to be successful!

The future card was the Ace of Hearts (Cups in other decks).  This is another one that feels fairly ambiguous to me.  Many of the interpretations I’ve read talk about love and relationships, and that is one area for which I don’t feel a need at the moment.  Others, though, talk of the spiritual aspects of the card.  A heightening of intuition, a coming spiritual epiphany.  *shrugs* We’ll have to wait and see what the future brings, I suppose.  And that’s the one thing I hate about the tarot.  I want to know right now, darn it!  I’m not a patient person *laughs*.

Anyone want to add to the interpretations, I’d love to hear what you have to say. 

Posted in Personal growth, Tarot | Comments (4)

Posted on Friday, 28th December 2007 by Maritzia

I knew I forgot something I wanted to say!  The coordinator for the local campaign for Barack Obama came by last night and we redid the website.  I’m actually quite proud of it, especially considering we finished it in about 2 hours *laughs*.  Well, I’d been working on the template off and on for a couple of weeks, but the actual guts of the site we put together in two hours last night.  Tell me what you think.

Whatcom for Obama 

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Posted on Friday, 28th December 2007 by Maritzia

I don’t often remember my dreams, even though I know I dream often, so when I do remember them, I tend to really take notice of them. I’ve always tend to have dreams with recurring themes, one of the most common of which is being in runaway vehicles. From what I’ve read, vehicles tend to signify power, and runaway vehicles signify powerlessness. That symbology has certainly rung true for me in these dreams and represented what I was felling quite well.

The other night, I dreamed that I was with my sister, who is an accountant at a hospital. She was at the hospital applying for a cleaning job to supplement her income. While I was waiting for her, there was a family with four kids sitting around me, and they were passing burritoes back and forth between them and across me, spilling burrito innards on me with each pass. This understandable annoyed me, so I went outside to get the car while I was waiting. Outside was the CEO of the hospital waiting by the car, which was a big black luxury car. He was quite concerned that I was not delayed or put out in any way. I got in the car and was driving around the circle in and out of the hospital entry while waiting for my sister to finish.

I thought a good bit about this dream before coming up with an interpretation. Money has, indeed, been tight for us and it is something that has worried me a good deal. I’m the kind of person who just cannot see solutions sometimes until suddenly they came upon me in a flash. A couple of days before this, I sat down with all of my bills, going through them and decideing what to do when one of these flashes hit me and I know how I was going to work through everything. This dream, I think, was a confirmation of my feelings that this will all work out. For once, I was not in an out of control car, but rather in full control of quite a nice vehicle (we drive a little compact in real life). It’s a turning point for me, I think, in really starting to feel in control of my destiny. That doesn’t mean that life won’t throw me surprises, of course. Just that for once in my life, I actually feel up to dealing with those circumstances.

Last night I dreamed that the host home parents for our teen shelter at work were summarily fired and Mark and I were going to get their jobs *laughs*. We’ve talked alot about that lately and have decided that it really is something we’d like to do when the opportunity arises. Both of us come from abusive backgrounds, and we have worked really hard over the years to deal with the emotional and psychological damage we suffered. We believe we truly have something special to offer these kids that someone without that background can never offer. We know, instinctively, where they are coming from and what they’re feeling. It helps that I’m pretty intuitive, and Mark, of course, is a full blown empath. In some ways it makes the work harder emotionally for us, but so much more satisfying in the end when we can really reach out and touch these kids.

Speaking of which, I’ll be doing respite at the home this weekend, so probably won’t be on-line. I’ve got some things I want to post, though, so if I get access and have time, I might update. Who knows?

Posted in Dreams, Personal growth | Comments (0)

Posted on Saturday, 22nd December 2007 by Maritzia

Ohhhh….look what I learned to do *points to the right of the screen*.

I’ve been reading Problogger to get some ideas for maximizing my blog. Wow….there is so much information there. I’m still wading through it all. But the big thing I learned was about RSS Feeds. No longer do I have to click on each blog in my list every day to see if there’s been an update. If they have RSS feeds enabled, I can subscribe to the feed and get all the updates easily. *giggles to herself* I’m so excited. I hope all of my regular reads have RSS enabled.

So, if you want to see when I update, subscribe using one of the links in the column to the right. And thanks for reading!

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Posted on Saturday, 22nd December 2007 by Maritzia

I was following a discussion on a mailing list to which I belong, and someone mentioned the power of our thoughts, not only over ourselves, but over our magic as well. I believe that our thoughts hold great power over us. They constantly affect not only us but the energy we send out into the world as witches. It is so important to practice discipline over out thoughts, to positively change the negative, the intolerant, and especially the self-abusive thoughts that can constantly run through our minds. Especially if you are from an abusive background, the litany of constant self-abuse that can run through our heads tends to affect every emotional response we have. It’s so important to learn to think for yourself rather than just let the tapes of other people’s opinions run your life and form your opinions. If you are consumed by negative self-thoughts, those thoughts will color every magickal act you make.

I know that Stuart Smiley of SNL fame has given affirmations a bad name, but they can be a great tool towards negating the negative self-image many of us had branded into our psyches while growing up. If you are constantly being battered internally by the words of others, take time every day to look youself in the eye in the mirror and repeat the good things about yourself, especially the things that negate the negative opinions in your head. Even if you don’t believe those things now, eventually just hearing them every day will make a difference. As they say in AA, fake it till you make it! Words have energy. Use them to help yourself!

Posted in Personal growth, Religion/Spirituality | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 9th November 2007 by Maritzia

…and as usual, I’m hopelessly behind. I’m at the 7400 word mark at the moment, but catching up quickly when I actually get time to write.

For anyone masochistic enough to be interested, here’s the link to my NaNo profile which includes an exerpt of the novel so far: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/151099

Warning, it is very bad writing which has had zero editing. Don’t blame me if your eyes bleed.

One of the reasons I’m so far behind is that NaNoWriMo is that our agency’s main annual fundraiser is this month, so work is crazier even than normal. If anyone out there actually has money and is interested in a worthwhile organization for your charitable giving, you won’t find one better than Northwest Youth Services. I know most of you are as poor as I am, but still, you never know *grins*.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Recommended Links | Comments (3)

Posted on Wednesday, 24th October 2007 by Maritzia

stolen shamelessly from witchofthewildwood.

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you’re interested in/curious about - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an entry. That way you get to know a little bit about my life.

If you want to do this in your journal, pass it on! I know I’m interested in your lives and would love to see more

Posted in Memes | Comments (4)

Posted on Friday, 12th October 2007 by Maritzia

Yes, boys and girls, it is once again time for NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s a link. Be a good little boy or girl and follow the link (don’t worry, it opens another page so you can keep reading here). So, time to throw ourselves to the mercy of the muse and attempt to put 50,000 words to paper in 30 days.

Last year, I decided to do NaNoWriMo at the last minute (like on November 2nd), so I had no preperation at all. I hadn’t so much as an outline or a character list, just a vague idea for a story. This year, I’m working at being a bit more prepared. I have about 1/3 of the story outlined. I’ve got about 1/2 the characters planned out. I need to buckle down in the next couple of weeks and get more of the prep work done so I can hit the ground running on November 1st.

So, who else here is a crazy person and signing up for NaNoWriMo. I finished last year on my first attempt, so this year I’m psyched!

Posted in NaNoWriMo | Comments (2)