Building a Besom and Building Community

I did not have a good Saturday. I had a bad Saturday. I got very little accomplished and nothing went my way. The highlight was spending time with my sister and nephew. The lowlight was their insisting on playing the Eminem/Rhianna song full blast. Nothing against the respective artists but I hate that song. Ugh.

So on Sunday I planned to hole up with some pizza, write and maybe play some WoW. Perhaps make a list of all the ways I am like Liz Lemon. Seriously just veg out in pjs and not deal with people all day. Instead, I got to go to a broom-making class with folks from my religious tradition.

Tromping around a field cutting broomstraw wasn’t how I planned to spend my Sunday but it was a good day. I got to spend time with folks from my tradition that I don’t get to see often and it was good to just hang out. I had an amazing day with really great people.

I think people forget that when they talk about Pagan traditions and organized Pagan groups. Everyone gets so caught up in hierarchy and occult lore and local politics that they miss the real benefit of being a member of a tradition: sitting around drinking tea on a sunny summer afternoon with people to whom you don’t have to explain yourself. People who are interested in hanging out for afternoon making brooms and spoiling puppy dogs with table scraps.

I’ve been a solitary and I’m not knocking that as a path-choice, but it’s nice to have community. Community doesn’t have to mean stress. It doesn’t have to mean all the negative things we have associated it with from our experiences with less-accepting religions and bad churches. We have the ability to build the kind of community we want full of love, acceptance and good humor.

I thought I wanted to be alone on Sunday but I’m glad I wasn’t. I needed a reminder that world wasn’t always about stress, deadlines, travel or being plugged into the internet continually. A world where you don’t have to wear labels or emphasize definitions. It was nice to to create something by hand, something old-fashioned and traditional, with really nice “home-folks” who didn’t have any agenda beyond good work, good food and good company. It was good for my soul. Plus, my broom turned out pretty sweet too!