I left the national forest for a beach and a national park … on my way to my overnight stay at a yet-to-be-completed 40-acre farm. (Check out my Facebook post for lots more photos.) 

To get to all these places, I had to cross bridges. Lots and lots of bridges. Including two big ones. Last night, I kept trying to find a route around them, but it became apparent that, once again, what I most resisted I most needed to do. And my sassy pendulum, held over a map, pretty much said the same thing, “Get over it.” Literally. 

Three things helped. One was the grounding I experienced being in the forest and going barefoot there and on the beach. There’s nothing like trees, sand and water to pull everything out of me. Second was the black obsidian in a black velvet pouch given me by a very, very dear sister and wise crone, Diane Hasz. She’s the one who showed me purple hair wasn’t just for women my daughter’s age and the one who set an example for traveling solo, loading up her car, Carmen, and driving it on blue highways across the country. The black stone in the black bag was to protect me and absorb fear. It usually hangs above my windshield, but it was dangling from my fingers as I crossed bridges. The magic from both it and the giver, who had faced her own fear of bridges, gets some credit. The third was something I call smile magic. Research has found you can’t be overcome with fear when you have a smile on your face. I found the same goes for anger, anxiety and frustration. So I put a smile on my face. Luckily, it need not be genuine to work, and as I approached bridges my smiles were totally fake. But as I found myself getting over each bridge, my smile was real, and my screams were full of joy. I had faced my fear and conquered it. (I so wish there was a badge for that I could sew on the bottom of my ritual cape. Badges shouldn’t only be for Scouts. Witches could get them for abilities, experiences and knowledge; in fact, no reason muggles couldn’t get some too.)

Add that joy that to the trees, sun, sand, water, a good hair day, a knee that held up to a lot of walking and a lot of driving, and you’d think it couldn’t get any better … but, oh, it did. I got to witch!! I did three reading for the couple who is hosting my stay on their farm tonight. They are living in campers as they first attend to the animals and land.

Outside now at 9:30pm is an inky blackness that is even deeper than that at the campground last night that was illuminated by a sky full of stars and a few lights, and later the moon that made it look like daybreak. I’m waiting to see if she is visible again later tonight so I can stand outside and let her light bathe my body a second consecutive night. 

Tomorrow I leave for Savannah for five days … during which time I trust the universe will reveal the next leg of my journey.