I agree it’s so much about what you chose focus on and have found that pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is necessary.
This afternoon from my garden I can hear a busy road, sirens, neighbours all around, lawnmowers, barbecues, bank holiday building projects etc. Like you Violet my inclination is to stay indoors and shut it all out! Sometimes I do. But I can also feel the gentle breeze, hear birds, get a lovely waft of incense and enjoy the dancing patterns of sunlight through the trees. I know I’ll benefit from the latter so I’m making a conscious effort to focus on these things.
Likewise for walking in the woods or anywhere else I want to go. I do notice that people look at you differently as a woman walking on your own (particularly when I go without a borrowed canine friend) and against my better judgement this can make me feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I sit in my car and have to talk myself into it. But I do because I also know that I am soothed by the river and the woods. I feel better for it so I push myself.
I think it’s a similar sentiment to speakout not wanting to hide things away, the strength of displaying who you are through artwork etc. Other people can make me feel uncomfortable but that’s not right, we all have the right to take up space in the world so long as we’re not harming others. I can only be responsible for myself so for me it’s been about consciously claiming this and overcoming any discomfort it brings for my own greater good/sanity. Reframing again- just like you Rosa, becoming an ‘earlier person’ as you get older!
Lagatha welcome back! I love your description of following your yearning to return to your craft, feels like coming home.
Re: specific goddesses I do now have a connection with a particular goddess but it’s only fairly recent. I’d been meeting her in journey meditations but didn’t know who she was. I’d tended to see beings in these meditations as archetypal energy and try and glean lessons from them. I have Elphame to thank for pointing me in the right direction after she recognised the deity I described here following one of my meditations. It’s been a joy to get to know her better and once I started learning more about her the synchronicities clicked into place and more began to flood in. It feels like a sacred and very personal relationship.
That said, I know there’s many different schools of thought as to how we work with goddess. My personal opinion is that you can align yourself with the particular energy of a goddess you would like to work with. Learn about her, make offerings, honour her message and nurture those traits in yourself. There are others here who are much more knowledgeable than me about pantheons and specific deities so I’m hoping someone will be along with ideas about goddesses with mother energy that you can connect with.
I love your idea of us providing that for each other Rosa, and your sense of gratitude for connection with others is beautiful.
Something I also try and do is to nurture the traits I’m craving from an outside force in myself. For example, as I was describing above I admire independence, confidence and self sufficiency in terms of energy management so I work on giving to myself by trying to embody these traits if that makes sense. In my experience like attracts like so as I work on embodying a feeling or trait then I attract it to me in terms of further learning, specific deities etc