Starting back at Beltaine, I decided to do something I have been wanting to so since I can’t remember when I first wanted it. I started researching the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and Ár nDraíocht Féin. I have been pondering them since then. While I loved the romantic fairytale-ness of OBOD, all that romantic re-constructionist is the main complaint I have carried about Wicca for a long time. I need something more real, more modern, something that prepares me for today and tomorrow. I need a connection to a way of life this side of the Atlantic.
So, I joined ADF. My membership began August 18, 2010. I got my membership card and materials the next week. I do love prompt correspondence! I flipped thru the manuals and stared at my membership card over and over. It could have been my childhood secret decoder ring for all the joy that membership packet has already given me.
Thirty four straight days of triple digit heat (and I have to bike to work and bike) combined with being short-staffed at work that by the time I got home, all I have wanted to do was veg under the air conditioning. Did I mention that work’s ac mostly does not work? Despite a new condenser in July, around noon it ceases blowing that nice cool air down on my head. Three repairmen came three different times this week to stand in front of me and state “it done froze up and I can’t do nothing with it, I cut it off and it will have to thaw out . . .” with a vague promise to come back tomorrow. Sigh.
This past week, I finally declared I must get started. Everyone else is starting school at the end of summer, so I am to. ADF has this well thought out Dedicant Path Program for ones first year of Study. Loads of explanations, essays, suggested reading list, forums and chat. Even a handy-dandy Wheel of the Year manual to follow for 52 weeks. Almost idiot proof, open the manual and begin at the first step:
School Supply List:
- Dedicate Handbook: the printed one sent to me and the web one uploaded to Google Docs where it will be ever handy on the Droid, for those long checkout lines.
- Dedicate Notebook: I have many paper journals; they are so pretty and collectible. I buy them and put them on my bookshelf for someday. I have an addiction for office supplies. However, I also can type faster than my arthritis hands and my mercurial mind will write on paper, so blogging it is.
- Meditation Journal: I might want to actually use one of my nice pretty paper journals for this, or I might blog.
- Email program: how many email addy’s can one girl have, as many as she can collect :)?
- Internet Access: at home and on the road
- Oak Leaves Subscription: budgeted in for next month
- Calendar: I love my Get Her Done Google Calendar
- Library Card: Since I was 6 years old, never leave home without it, priceless.
- various books needed from the reading list
Week One Work:
Why have you chosen to take the first steps on the Dedicant Path?
I have yearned for this for so long, I can’t remember when the idea was implanted in my head. I am older and less obligated in my work and family life, so I will indulge myself to do all the things that weren’t time or money to do before.
Is this a step on your path, or will this become the Path itself?
Aren’t all actions steps to one’s path? If you decide something no longer serves a good purpose, did it not have to be the step to get you to the next step I always felt slightly uncomfortable as a wiccan but it seemed to be a closer fit than any other path during my adult years. It no longer works for me. I want a experience that awakens the nature in me.
What do you expect to learn?
I expect to learn just as much as I am open to.
What would you like to get out of this journey?
The satisfaction of knowing more than I did before I started. Anything greater than that would be a bonus.
Do you know where this path will take you?
Nope, I am on the Fool’s Journey, don’t ya’ know?
If you have just joined ADF, why have you chosen to work on this immediately?
I have already waited as long as I wanted to.
If you have been in ADF for a long time, why are you starting only now?
Not applicable
Does it look hard or easy?
Hard is having to work 8 hours a day in retail management. Reading is easy. Writing is easy. It is the discipline and the thinking that is challenging. Challenging is not hard, it is stimulating.
Which requirements appear to be difficult to you now, and which appear to be easy?
I think the most difficult things at the moment is staying focused. I separated from my partner this past January. We were together for 30 years. Now that I am past the consuming guilt, betrayal and regrets, I am experiencing blissful solitude and freedom. Being freed from the responsibilities of a spouse and housekeeping duties, I feel like a child in a candy store, what to do today? I need to regain my balance and develop a disciplined schedule of mediation and working with nature.
Do you have doubts, questions, or concerns that you need to ask about?
Yes, does anyone know the winning Powerball numbers??
Next up, Week 2 – The First Oath (dramatic sound bite) and a Shrine Makeover.
