I have, over the years, developed relaxation and self-indulgence, into a fine art. Being a true Virgo, by nature, this was no small feat! The inner need to have everything organized and perfect is continually at odds with my love of lounging, bed picnics with my beloved and my latest... internet addiction.
In my youth and when the girls were children, even a moment of this self indulgence was, in my mind, counter productive. If I sat for a bit to enjoy a cup of coffee my mind would immediately turn on me. I should be doing laundry, dishes, running the vacuum or any number of mundane household chores that are required to keep 2 adults, 3 small children and a variety of furry friends from living in squalor. Needless to say, it proved unhealthy in its own right. I was always berating myself, exhausted and never satisfied.
Fast forward 10 years... The girls are teenagers and our home is ‘THE' place to be if you were between the ages of 13-17 and living in a 15 mile radius, lol. What a mess and now I'm working full time. I have no time to do anything and I don't have to tell you how much help a bunch of teenage girls and boys are. I would get up very early and stay up way too late to do even the simplest chores accomplished and get a moment of peace. Yes, the girls did help but (and here comes that damn Virgo) it was never as good as I would've done. I never, ever said that to them. It's my problem... not theirs but I would constantly feel the need to go along behind them and resweep the floor, refold the laundry, etc... you get the idea. I kept saying to myself, ‘there must be a better way'. My better way came in the form of a friend of the girls. She suffered from a mild case of OCD and spent a lot of time at our house! I can never thank this glorious creature enough in this lifetime for what she brought to our family and for saving my sanity. Here's how she did it... She introduced me to the practice of constant puttering! She did everything from kitchen to bathroom in bite sized chunks. Generously intermingled with having coffee, hanging out with the girls, enjoying the latest CD, etc... She would wash the silverware and then download a song... put away the silverware and wash the plates and have a cup of coffee.... Put away the plates and wash pots then do her hair in the bathroom with the girls... and on and on it went until before you knew it the kitchen was spotless and she hadn't even broken a sweat! She'd been ‘hanging out' the whole time.
Seems easy, right? I'll bet like me, you were raised with the premise that if you start something you don't stop till it's done. Work, work, work then you can rest, relax, and have fun. I don't know about you but the rest, relax, have fun part never seemed to materialize for me. By the time the weekend rolled around I had a list a mile long of things I wanted to accomplish and two days to do it. You do the math... it doesn't work! I would be frantic and crazy and tired and feeling like I had failed. Puttering was completely foreign to me. It didn't seem right, how could it work?
I can only say that it's more a change in attitude than anything else. While I've been writing this and surfing a bit and visiting with my daughter who stopped over and having coffee with my honey and watching the birds and calling that ‘wonderful creature' to tell her how much I appreciate her... I've also cleaned the kitchen and picked up the living room, weed-whacked and a few other little chores! I've accomplished all those annoyingly dreary chores while relaxing the whole time! Strangely enough I look forward to puttering... It's a productive way to ensure that I always have time for the really important things in life. Spending time with family (which includes my family here on CS!), learning, napping, enjoying nature... as a matter of fact, I'm going to clean the coffee pot and take a walk in the woods right now....

The weather forecast is less than favorable for planting so I've been staring whistfully out the window all morning... Have you ever seen such blue? The Indigo Buntings have been around the feeders for about a week and a half... I've tried to get them on film so many times to no avail. I turned around and there he was... posing in the bird cage feeder (yes, he can get out, lol)! 

and then... not to be outdone by a flashy finch...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

I don't usually comment on music other than the reference to Bach in my profile. I feel the need for it across the board, from classic to funk and back again but I'm totally taken with Amy Winehouse! I've read reviews, some good and some bad but most agree, as do I.... major talent... I love her voice, writting style/composition and even her 'I don't give a @#*& attitude, lol! I only hope we don't watch her send her talent to the bottom of the bottle :(

Here's one of her better reviews;

You can also read it at: http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/4/6/amyWinehouseBringsDownTheHouse

Amy Winehouse brings down the house
By Katie Taylor
----------------------------------------

She is a smoother Macy Gray. An edgier Kelly Clarkson. An urban Norah Jones. She is Motown meets R&B meets jazz meets pop. Amy Winehouse, the latest Brit to break onto the American music scene, is a sound all her own.
Her distinctive music has already won her critical acclaim in Britain, where she won the "British Female Solo Artist Award" and released a multi-platinum debut album. Now releasing her second record "Back to Black" in the U.S., Winehouse is part of what has been deemed the third British Invasion, which includes such Brit musicians as Snow Patrol, KT Tunstall, James Blunt, James Morrison, Natasha Bedingfield, Corinne Bayley Ray and Joss Stone. But this skinny, Jewish Brit doesn't look or sing like anyone else crossing the pond. With Rapunzel-length black curly hair, a throw-back-disco bee hive, huge naked lady tattoos down both her arms, black Egyptian eye make-up and a thick English accent, Amy Winehouse's splash onto the American music scene is well-deserved.
Although some British superstars haven't translated to U.S. audiences (Robbie Williams standing as one of the most dramatic examples), America is embracing Winehouse's unique vocals and full-band back-up right alongside her orthidontically challenged cousins. Inspired by the 1960s doo-wop girl-groups, Winehouse is a modern jazz and R&B artist with a retro sound. Her list of influences is as broad as her vocal range and includes Busta Rhymes, the Shangri-las, Elvis, Sarah Vaughn and Nas. She samples "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" in her song "Tears Dry on Their Own"; four tracks later, her song "You Know I'm No Good" features Ghostface Killah.
Her inimitable sound is coupled with her dark, honest, catchy and autobiographical lyrics. Winehouse wrote or co-wrote every song on "Back to Black" and claims her soul is in her music. In response to gossip about her drug and alcohol use, Winehouse said, "If you read the stories, that's cool, but there's not much I can say about myself that the music doesn't." In her hit single "Rehab," Winehouse croons, "They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said no, no no." Later in the song, as a tribute to ‘60s icons Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway, she denounces rehab: "I'd rather be at home with Ray/ I ain't got seventy days/ Cuz there's nothing, nothing you can teach me/ That I can't learn from Mr. Hathaway." In her equally dark single, "You Know I'm No Good," Winehouse laments, "I cheated myself/ Like I knew I would/ I told you I was trouble/ You know that I'm no good." The themes of alcohol and relationships pepper her lyrics, as do unrequited love, sex, loneliness and lost romantic bliss, yet she attacks these common song themes in an edgy, blunt and candid manner.
And Winehouse's music is just as honest as the words she sings. With raw talent to spare, Winehouse's live acoustic recordings outshine her studio recordings - there's no need for mixing or auto-correction. She performs with a ten-plus piece orchestra and recorded her album with a full live band instead of electronically adding instruments (which, sadly, has become the norm for most pop music). She brings the authenticity of jazz music, the funk of R&B and the memorable lyrics and melodies of pop to the table, and she looks good while she doing it all.
"Back to Black" debuted in Billboard's Top Ten upon its U.S. release, and her American shows have been sold out for months. With one of the richest, most unique albums on the charts, this girl is a rising star - get ready for Winehouse to bring down the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD5sahXoj0U

May 16, 2007
Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps
By NEELA BANERJEE
DUMFRIES, Va. - Above the woman's fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago.
Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the
elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised
Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no
one - not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children's playgroups - that she is Wiccan.
Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca - a form of paganism - still faces a
struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important
victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of
approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans' headstones.
But Wicca in the civilian world is largely a religion in hiding. Wiccans fear losing their friends and jobs if people find
out about their faith.
"I would love to be able to say ‘Accept us for who we are,' but I can't, mainly because of my kids," said the suburban
mother, who agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. "Children can be cruel, and their parents can be even
more cruel, and I don't want my kids picked on for the choice their mommy made."
She worries that because most people know little about Wicca, they will assume she worships Satan. She fears that her
family and friends will abandon her and that the community will ostracize her.
David Steinmetz, professor of the history of Christianity at Duke Divinity School, said, "Wiccans have so many things
stacked against them, from what the Bible says about the practice of magic to the history in this country of witch trials,
that the image of them adds up to something so contrary to the consensus about genuine religion that still shapes
American society."
Wiccans worship the divine in nature. Some practice it privately in their homes, and others worship with large
congregations. Most people do not grow up Wiccan but come to it from another religion.
"It's a very open religion," said Helen A. Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
"Each person can do what they want, and they don't have to belong to a group. They take things from a number of
different sources, like Eastern religions, Celtic practices. You are the ultimate authority of your own experience."
But its symbols and practices elicit suspicion from outsiders, Wiccans and religion scholars say.
Many Wiccans practice some form of magic or witchcraft, which they say is a way of affecting one's destiny, but which
many outsiders see as evil. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is often confused with symbols of
Satanism. (The five points of the star represent the elements of nature - earth, air, fire and water - and the spirit,
within the eternal circle of life.)
It is unclear how many Wiccans and other pagans there are. The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey by the
City University of New York found that Wicca was the country's fastest-growing religion, with 134,000 adherents,
compared with 8,000 in 1990. The actual number may be greater, Ms. Berger said. Some people may have been
unwilling to identify themselves as pagan or Wiccan for the survey. Others combine paganism with other religions.
Wiccans face less backlash now than in the past. The Internet provides information about Wicca, and the popularity of
the Harry Potter novels has made magic seem a force for good, scholars and Wiccans say.
David and Jeanet Ewing, coordinators of two pagan groups in the Washington area, estimate that at least 1,000
Wiccans and other pagans live in Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. At least half actively hide
their faith from their relatives, Ms. Ewing said. Many also hide their faith from their employers, Mr. Ewing said.
One such person is a 58-year-old former Roman Catholic who has been an auditor for 30 years in what he calls "one of
the most buttoned-down departments in one of the most sacrosanct agencies" of the federal government.
"I put on this Joe Taxpayer suit, and it's like living two lives," he said. "A minority would have a problem with me, but
it would be a big problem. They would assume we are doing weird things, illegal, immoral things, at all hours. They
wouldn't want to really know what we do, but they would go with their presuppositions instead."
The auditor said that by "coming out of the broom closet," he risked ostracism at work and perhaps being pushed into
early retirement, which would affect his pension. "I don't even want to contemplate it," he said.
A New York marketing executive finds the city so secular that being passionate about religion is often met with a
smirk, and it would be worse if people knew he was Wiccan, he said. "In my personal and private life, I like to be taken
seriously," he said. "Pagans are associated with the '70s and hippies and counterculture. New York is a Type A city,
and it's all about getting ahead, and the kooky ones don't get ahead."
Members of other religions, including Jews and Catholics, have sometimes been forced to mask their faith in the past
because of religious bias, Professor Steinmetz said. But it is rare, he added, for people to keep their religion from
parents and grandparents, as many Wiccans do.
The Virginia mother has not told her mother or grandmother that she is a Wiccan. "I have a deep-seated fear that they
will say, ‘I can't be a part of this, you're raising your kids as evil,' " she said.
She attends classes about Wicca on Friday nights, and she has yet to caution her older child, a preschooler, not to tell
anyone about them.
"My son says, ‘Yeah, Mommy's going to witch school,' " she said. "I'm just waiting for the day he says that in front of a
teacher."
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16wiccan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin