Welcome to the 2010 Pagan Summer Camp!
These summer camp threads started when members of the MDC pagan circle realized that they were missing out on the summer camp fun! The summer seems to be filled with camps where individuals explore religious/spiritual topics through crafting and contests and community... so why not a pagan summer camp?
If you're curious about past camps, please check out 2007 and 2008, and 2009. In general, Pagan Summer Camp threads are hosted on a different topic each year and focus on a different portion of that topic each week... you do have to supply your own canoe, s'mores, and sleeping bag but hopefully you'll enjoy the camp community even without the group campfire sing.
Soooo... what is the topic for Pagan Summer Camp 2010? drumroll please....
DO IT NOW!
We all want to save the world, have a beautiful organized home, raise a healthy & happy family, enjoy a holistic lifestyle, eat only wholesome local organic happy food, balance work and school and home with ease, have a supportive social life, a passionate love life, be at the perfect weight, live a deeply spiritual and ethical life, and do it all on a budget while saving for emergencies.
But...well... it's possible that most of us don't have this life.
We look around at the pollution attacking the earth and the sea and the sky, we stand on a scale or wait for another job interview or dread the mailbox or step on the tenth lego in as many minutes, and we throw our hands up in despair. (Or in my case, I throw my hands up in despair and then look for ice cream) The hurdles just seem too high, it's too hard, it wont happen.
In the past month though, the universe has been pounding on my door and shouting "baby steps! just do it!" through the window. Every little thing counts. Every step, every thought, every hope, every dream! Start small... start smaller than small! It adds up. A woven cloth is just one thread...after another thread...after another thread. Any single thread is small enough to vanish into the rug without a trace (until found and swallowed by the baby of course) but when you keep laying them, one next to the other, almost before you know it the fabric is flowing off the loom...
The trick is to start small, feel successful, and keep going! Make it a habit. Don't worry about oil in the gulf... just go outside, right now, and say THANK YOU (out loud! your neighbors and co-workers probably think you're a bit odd anyway
) to the sky above you and the earth beneath you. And then look around... is there a piece of litter you could pick up RIGHT NOW? Could you fetch a cup of water to pour on a dried out plant RIGHT NOW? Is there a person driving you to distraction that you could smile at RIGHT NOW? Could you jot a quick haiku or smily face on your hand with a pen RIGHT NOW to bring a breath of beauty and inspiration or at least silliness to your day? And about the gulf... did you know your local, state, and federal representatives all have websites with "contact me" forms? It takes less than 5 minutes to fill that out and send it off, voicing your concern and your trust that they will speak for you on this issue. You just have to do it. Now. You're on the computer already!
Just do it. Do it now.
The goal of Pagan Summer Camp 2010 is to offer tips, tricks, ideas, crafts, songs, poems, promises, support (and possibly chocolate and posh coffee drinks) to help us all build daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal habits of ACTIVE INVOLVED ENGAGED PRACTICAL hope and health rooted in our Pagan spirituality. Pagans dream with the earth, the sea, the sky. Pagans walk with spirits great and small. But we need to turn those dreams into realities one moment at a time, and turn that walk into a physical act. We need to DO IT NOW! And, of course, we need to have fun doing it! So welcome to Camp!
These summer camp threads started when members of the MDC pagan circle realized that they were missing out on the summer camp fun! The summer seems to be filled with camps where individuals explore religious/spiritual topics through crafting and contests and community... so why not a pagan summer camp?
If you're curious about past camps, please check out 2007 and 2008, and 2009. In general, Pagan Summer Camp threads are hosted on a different topic each year and focus on a different portion of that topic each week... you do have to supply your own canoe, s'mores, and sleeping bag but hopefully you'll enjoy the camp community even without the group campfire sing.
Soooo... what is the topic for Pagan Summer Camp 2010? drumroll please....
DO IT NOW!
We all want to save the world, have a beautiful organized home, raise a healthy & happy family, enjoy a holistic lifestyle, eat only wholesome local organic happy food, balance work and school and home with ease, have a supportive social life, a passionate love life, be at the perfect weight, live a deeply spiritual and ethical life, and do it all on a budget while saving for emergencies.
But...well... it's possible that most of us don't have this life.
We look around at the pollution attacking the earth and the sea and the sky, we stand on a scale or wait for another job interview or dread the mailbox or step on the tenth lego in as many minutes, and we throw our hands up in despair. (Or in my case, I throw my hands up in despair and then look for ice cream) The hurdles just seem too high, it's too hard, it wont happen.
In the past month though, the universe has been pounding on my door and shouting "baby steps! just do it!" through the window. Every little thing counts. Every step, every thought, every hope, every dream! Start small... start smaller than small! It adds up. A woven cloth is just one thread...after another thread...after another thread. Any single thread is small enough to vanish into the rug without a trace (until found and swallowed by the baby of course) but when you keep laying them, one next to the other, almost before you know it the fabric is flowing off the loom...
The trick is to start small, feel successful, and keep going! Make it a habit. Don't worry about oil in the gulf... just go outside, right now, and say THANK YOU (out loud! your neighbors and co-workers probably think you're a bit odd anyway
) to the sky above you and the earth beneath you. And then look around... is there a piece of litter you could pick up RIGHT NOW? Could you fetch a cup of water to pour on a dried out plant RIGHT NOW? Is there a person driving you to distraction that you could smile at RIGHT NOW? Could you jot a quick haiku or smily face on your hand with a pen RIGHT NOW to bring a breath of beauty and inspiration or at least silliness to your day? And about the gulf... did you know your local, state, and federal representatives all have websites with "contact me" forms? It takes less than 5 minutes to fill that out and send it off, voicing your concern and your trust that they will speak for you on this issue. You just have to do it. Now. You're on the computer already!Just do it. Do it now.
The goal of Pagan Summer Camp 2010 is to offer tips, tricks, ideas, crafts, songs, poems, promises, support (and possibly chocolate and posh coffee drinks) to help us all build daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal habits of ACTIVE INVOLVED ENGAGED PRACTICAL hope and health rooted in our Pagan spirituality. Pagans dream with the earth, the sea, the sky. Pagans walk with spirits great and small. But we need to turn those dreams into realities one moment at a time, and turn that walk into a physical act. We need to DO IT NOW! And, of course, we need to have fun doing it! So welcome to Camp!
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