Go Walk the Dog
This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems I have about 9 thousand spiral-bound notebooks, journals, tablets and dated calendars that are full of my reflective thoughts, poems, drawings, and hand-written spells. Stuffed within their pages are many photos and a number of clippings from various publications that I’ve accumulated over the years. Until I decided to start this blog, I’m quite sure that I have rarely, if ever, even looked through any of them after I’d written or inserted all that stuff in them.
Working in the Craft I’ve learned the true value of self-discovery. Throughout our lives we collect many ‘aspects’ of ourselves that define and shape how we relate to the real world and other beings around us. Understanding these aspects is necessary in order to make any desired change. This is much like the process of identifying a problem before you can ascertain a solution.
There are various means available in getting to ‘know thy self’. Journal writing (and apparently collecting a bunch of relevant paper items) is my preferred method of cataloging aspects of my Self. Mr. Bean likes to turn off the radio when he’s driving alone in his truck just to sort out his Inner thoughts. Our oldest daughter prefers to receive her Self revelations while she’s alone in the shower.
Whatever the chosen method, it’s always beneficial to allow yourself some time now and then to explore what’s been accumulating in your Being. Until you give yourself a process by which you can effectively recognize and understand what you’ve been collecting in there, you can’t make an informed decision on which aspects to keep, which to discard, or which ones you’d like to alter.
Walk the dog, pet the cat, take a shower, go for a drive, or write a letter to yourself this weekend and explore the ‘aspects’ of you. When you discover who you are and how you think and feel, it’s easier to venture forth in creating who you would like to be, what you would prefer to experience, and how you would rather think and feel about the real world. Once you have completed this particular session in your process, you will have moved on and never have to review it again.
…Unless of course you would like to start a blog. Then you’ll have to go back and look at what it was you discovered just for reference:)
