[Bit]

Oh, I'm sure you probably need financial prosperity as much as we do or even more, Magic! It's a great mantra. If you say it every single time you find yourself worrying about money it will change you AND your money circumstances.

I said it multiple times a day at first because I was in despair about our money. The first thing that changed was me; the despair lifted and I began to see things with hopeful eyes. That allowed room for change in our lives, and meant that the forces for change didn't have to buck through as much negativity, so even small positive changes could get through. That was a rocky path though; I was still prone to despair off and on for several months.

Then money started coming in before the end of that first month, ten bucks here, twenty bucks there--slow, yanno? never anything we could actually count on--but just enough to keep me saying the mantra. I started saying it October 1st a year and a half ago and on October 31st, we were told about That House. On March 17th (after a lot of failures!) we closed on That House. I am firmly convinced it was the mantra that brought us financing, because we were turned down by every conventional source we tried. If our credit was acceptable, the house was not, and vice versa, until we finally said the heck with it and gave up... but I kept saying the mantra, and then private financing appeared.

I kept on saying that mantra every day for over a year. It made a huge difference in how well we were able to pay the bills. I still say it, but not as regularly. I wonder if it might have been a mistake to stop saying it every day, yanno? But the things which I was using as prompts to say it have changed. Maybe I should start again. After all, who doesn't need to prosper?

So, back to Beltane, we attended a local picnic in a park, complete with two Maypole dances. It was great! There was a plant swap, a May Queen crowning, lots of sparring with foam swords to choose her champion, and a ton of really great food--WITH, I kid you not, a couple of bins to scrape plates into for compost!! Of course Pagans would think of that, lol!

My favorite part is that an eleven year old girl beat ALL the champion candidates at sparring, some of them over and over. She beat most of the adults, too; it was great. Gryph was the only one who held his own with this girl.

After Gryph and I had gotten home and relaxed some from a busy day filled with sun and new friends, I said, "...wow... I feel like I finally found my people..." and yanno, it still feels that way. The picnic was VERY much like a family reunion where you find adult cousins you hadn't met before, and discover that you're all really similar in important ways: that "shared family" bond. It was just like that! I really loved it and I want to get more involved with this community.

An intriguing part of the day was that the May Queen could have been Arwen's younger twin. It was kind of odd, feeling like I knew her when I'd never met her before, lol! And I think I'm going to have to consciously remind myself a lot that she is her own self, and not our Arwen, or I'll be expecting her to do and say things that she won't.