Beltane is my second favorite holiday. After Halloween, of course. There is a great Fire that fuels the Earth. I mean this both literally (ahem, SUN!) and figuratively. The heat that had been building since Candlemas is the most within our reach, you can almost touch it with out being burned to smithereens. Leap the fire if you dare.
So it’s a common scenario: someone is ill, or is hurt or is generally not their usual selves. And they or someone close to them is asking for prayer and/or enegry and/or thoughts. My question is: Is there a difference? You send intent out into the universe. Is God™ or any other deity acting as a focal point? A magnifing lense? Is sending prayers/energy/thoughts to a deity any better or worse than sending prayer/enegry/thoughts to the person directly?
It’s a matter of skills. If God acts as a focal point, great! If you send directly to the person, great! It is indeed the thought itself that counts. It doesn’t particularly matter what we call it. You send prayers, I send enegry… the intent is the same. The semantics make us feel better, but at the core, it’s irrelevant.
How a person carries themselves matters. And there are lots of ways to do this. One of my people-watching theories is that you can tell quite a bit from the way a person walks. The idea being is that a person subconsciously leads with their strengths.
The nerd.
If a person is most confident about their scholastic or intellectual abilities, they will lead with their head. And by ‘lead’ I don’t mean that they walk head down like a battering ram or anything. More that their head (brain) is the first body part that one notices when they walk by at a distance.
The athlete.
A person confident of their athletic ability or strength will lead with their shoulders. This is much more common in the men that I have observed, less so in women. In fact, most of the women I have seen walk in this fashion are either college athletes (the ones I’ve seen up close) or Olympians (I’ve seen on TV)
The athlete variation. (Gorilla walk)
Some men (all these are men, in my observation) who work their upper body in disproportion to their lower body walk in a way that holds their arms out from the body and draws more attention to those as opposed to their shoulders.
Sexy
When a person holds most confidence in their gender or their sexual talents, they walk with their hips. Ok, yes, I know. Everyone walks with their hips. But this is the first thing you see. From what I have observed, this is both men and women, both gay and straight.
Belly walk
This is how pregnant women usually walk. Sometimes because they are physically unable (at that point in pregnancy) to walk any other way. Sometimes because they identify best as ‘pregnant’. I have seen some men (always with beer bellys) walk like this as well. They indemnify most with their belly. I find that a bit odd, but to each their own.
Left foot, right foot
If you watch a young kids walk, say between the ages of 3 and 6, they tend to pay just a bit more attention to their feet, since they are relatively new to the whole walking thing, and they don’t appear all that certain of how their feet really are attached. I’ve seen adults do this too, and I can’t decipher why this is.
Switching.
Not everyone walks the same way all the time. I’ve seen people walk like nerds on one situation (after class) and then walk like athletes later (after playing tennis).
Negating factors.
People who are carrying things, or pushing or pulling things.
Members of the armed services – some always walk like a ‘solider’, which is to say, with very little distinguishing features. Some do this only in uniform.
People who are injured.
I was drawn to the magic place, where the veil thins and over the babble of the creek, you can hear the fairies laugh. I came 15 years after the whole thing started. I was hardly the first. Certianly not the last. I stood in the Royal Meadow with my infant son when the Greenman called the corners and welcomed the Spring. I was enchanted.
I returned to the magic place, where invisible wings and hand carved flutes stir the breeze. I wanted that peace that graced the trees. My expectations were high. I had walked here before. I stood by the house with my infant son and watched the fairies transform to lumbermen and EMTs. I was enthralled.
I crave the magic place, where the bounty of Earth springs forth and bears joy by it’s very existence. I found peace and joy and each of the 7 blessings. You can touch them. They dance in the water and wind. I walked from field to farm, bearing fruits of labor to share and partake. I was euphoric.
And like every perfect thing, this too must end. Brought by the politics of the fairies themselves, the circle is closed. The May Pole stands still, testament to what was. I will harvest the land. The magic in that shall last. The magic that drew me, however, has proved fleeting. I will not play the games of bureaucrats and nobility. They can have their Court and their Ball. My sons and I will find another path.
I have never lived today before. At least not that I remember. And not remembering makes it not count. So if I have never lived today before, that means that the possibilities are endless. It’s so easy to get caught in the daily grind. Keeping our noses down that we never look up and see the sky, the trees. Or feel the rain on our faces. I have never lived today before and the world knows it. The world waits, poised, ready to leap. From the water nymphs in Pierceville Run to the firebirds of Siberia to Herne of Sherwood Forest, they wait. For someone to see and respond. Someone less hesitant than I. Maybe one day, I will give myself to the rain. Not Today.