things around my house thursday, 3 of 52

I saw my mom this morning, and with a raised eyebrow she said to me, "SOooooo, are you ooooookaaaaayyyy???" (hint: she reads my blog)

For the record, I am not currently experiencing anxiety. At the moment I am feeling really damn good.

I wrote about anxiety yesterday solely because of the ABC-along. I really want this project to be something with some depth for me, and besides, every time I tried to come up with a different topic than anxiety, I kept feeling like I was avoiding something important.

I mean, I almost did "A" is for "Apples"....because quite frankly, it IS for apples over here (every day I am running a few pounds of Granny Smith's through the juicer)...but now that wouldn't have been too exciting ;-)
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Things Around My House Thursday

Okay, so now that I've explained about the wall of little boxes, let's take a peek into one, shall we?


This is a statue of Quan Yin. She is often referred to as the Goddess of Compassion.

Around her neck is a beaded bracelet that is now too stretched out for me to wear. Next to it, is another red bracelet. This one is seeds strung onto memory wire.

In my mid-twenties I did some rethinking about my relationship with my monthly cycle. I had always though of it as one big fat drag. As something somewhat icky. As no fun at all (crampy). And from somewhere I had been gifted the concept that it was "the curse".

I spent a good couple of years reframing all of that. I did a lot of reading about other and older cultures and how they celebrated the changes in women's bodies. I also did some research about the interesting links between patriarchy and feminine products. I made some art, and did a few rituals for myself to honor a new way of looking at myself. Each month when I'd start my period I would buy myself flowers, I'd celebrate by eating red foods, and I always wore red clothes. My best of friends always new my wearing red meant, and it was the biggest inside joke ever, I think. At least you never had to ask LOL.

Interestingly enough, as I changed my relationship with menstruation, my cramps went away (pms to this day however, has not--ugh!). As time went on, I didn't feel the need to work with my cycle so symbolically as I had before, and so instead of red clothes, I would just put on a red bracelet. I wore that one around Quan Yin's neck until it go so stretched out I couldn't wear it anymore. I went for a few years without. The memory wire bracelet with the beads came as a much later replacement, but I never really got consistent with wearing it. The original bracelet though, has always remained in some visible place of significance ever since it was retired.

This part of my altar reminds me to be compassionate with myself during my time of the month.