{"id":1164,"date":"2016-12-29T03:04:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T07:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2016-12-29T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T15:21:23","slug":"random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Welcome to the last Random Wednesday of the year. Farewell 2016, don\u2019t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.<\/p>\n

\n

Sometimes what goes wrong in a ritual can be a source of insight. My usual little Winter Solstice ritual is very simple: I light several candles and lamps and leave them outside (safely!) overnight, to hold and guide the light. This year I lit those candles right before sunset, and headed out to teach a class. When I got back, all but one had gone out \u2014 some freak of wind, or damp wicks, or something.<\/p>\n

But one candle is enough to light many others. Something to remember in dark times.<\/p>\n

\"By
By Wikimedia Commons user Foto.MF.<\/a> (CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

My mother came home for dinner on Christmas. She still has several more weeks of physical and occupational therapy to go before she can come home for good, but if you\u2019ve been reading this blog over the past few months you know that its a Christmas miracle that she is on her way to recovery.<\/a> I hope your holiday was one-tenth as bright.<\/p>\n

\n

Last January, and the one before that, I did a Fun a Day<\/a>, one bit of creative art each day of the month. But as we move into January, there\u2019s no one organizing a show in Baltimore, and I\u2019m behind schedule on a lot of things.<\/p>\n

So rather than one intense month, I\u2019m making a year-long commitment \u2014 one piece a week. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever. And as this new year starts on a Sunday, it aligns very well with that. I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to take up the same challenge \u2014 well, by golly, do it! Let\u2019s put Neil Gaiman\u2019s advice to work in 2017<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.<\/p>\n

Make good art.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it\u2019s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn\u2019t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.<\/p>\n

Make it on the good days too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happy new year. (And 2016, if I ever see you again, I\u2019m gonna kick your ass.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the last Random Wednesday of the year. Farewell 2016, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1860,"featured_media":1173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,19,719,75],"tags":[721,90],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-magic-ritual","category-random-wednesdays","category-seasonal-musings","tag-art","tag-yule"],"yoast_head":"\nRandom Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Zen Pagan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-29T07:04:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-29T15:21:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/560\/2016\/12\/Sv\u00ed\u010dky_foto._Miroslav_Fr\u00fddl.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Swiss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tom_swiss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Swiss\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/\",\"name\":\"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-29T07:04:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-29T15:21:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/e26f8c6f90ed1049d72923720f60d45a\"},\"description\":\"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/\",\"name\":\"The Zen Pagan\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/e26f8c6f90ed1049d72923720f60d45a\",\"name\":\"Tom Swiss\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95c7748c3e583ce4717c93533454f214?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95c7748c3e583ce4717c93533454f214?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tom Swiss\"},\"description\":\"Tom Swiss describes his spiritual path as \\\"Zen Pagan Taoist Atheist Discordian\\\", which usually baffles questioners enough to leave him alone. Over the past decade he has built a reputation as a lecturer on subjects spanning the gamut from acupressure to Zen and from self-defense to sexuality. He is an NCCAOM Diplomate in Asian Bodywork Therapy, a godan (fifth-degree black belt) in karate, a poet, a singer\/songwriter, an amateur philosopher, and a professional computer geek. Tom has previously served as President of the Free Spirit Alliance. He is the author of \\\"Why Buddha Touched the Earth\\\" (Megalithica Books, 2013). Find out more about his wacky adventures at www.infamous.net.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/infamous.net\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tom_swiss\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/author\/tswiss\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity","description":"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity","og_description":"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/","og_site_name":"The Zen Pagan","article_published_time":"2016-12-29T07:04:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-12-29T15:21:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":425,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/560\/2016\/12\/Sv\u00ed\u010dky_foto._Miroslav_Fr\u00fddl.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tom Swiss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@tom_swiss","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Swiss","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/","name":"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-12-29T07:04:26+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-29T15:21:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/e26f8c6f90ed1049d72923720f60d45a"},"description":"I commit to posting one new artistic creation (however humble) each weekend in 2017. A new song, poem, piece of digital art, whatever.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2016\/12\/random-wednesday-solstice-candles-family-dinners-52-weeks-creativity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/","name":"The Zen Pagan","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/e26f8c6f90ed1049d72923720f60d45a","name":"Tom Swiss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95c7748c3e583ce4717c93533454f214?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95c7748c3e583ce4717c93533454f214?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tom Swiss"},"description":"Tom Swiss describes his spiritual path as \"Zen Pagan Taoist Atheist Discordian\", which usually baffles questioners enough to leave him alone. Over the past decade he has built a reputation as a lecturer on subjects spanning the gamut from acupressure to Zen and from self-defense to sexuality. He is an NCCAOM Diplomate in Asian Bodywork Therapy, a godan (fifth-degree black belt) in karate, a poet, a singer\/songwriter, an amateur philosopher, and a professional computer geek. Tom has previously served as President of the Free Spirit Alliance. He is the author of \"Why Buddha Touched the Earth\" (Megalithica Books, 2013). Find out more about his wacky adventures at www.infamous.net.","sameAs":["http:\/\/infamous.net","https:\/\/twitter.com\/tom_swiss"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/author\/tswiss\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}