A new year awaits

We passed a pretty sedate Yule.  Hampered, as it was, by catching COVID a couple of weeks before.  Still, we had a nice celebration with family and shared a drink with those we lost this year.

Big things are planned for 2022 and beyond... 

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

Our title comes from Seneca this time. The coming of the new year is supposed to be all about new beginnings, but for me I always feel that, for a few months at least, it carries on pretty much in the same vein. Business as usual. We're still in the depths of winter with cold, rain and occasional snow. We're in yet another lockdown (a proper one this time, my daughter is even schooling from home). It will be months before the weather picks up. Frankly, I'm expecting intermittent lockdowns well into this year at least. With a government more interested in feathering their own nest than doing the job of working for the people, it will be a long road before all this COVID-19 business is sorted.

So, 2020's "Lockdown Christmas" meant interaction with family and friends was cut to a minimum. For us this year, that meant we spend Christmas day at home. This was the first time this has happened since we moved into our home around five or six years ago. That gave us a little more control over the day's proceedings and limited family gathering made things all a lot more relaxed than normal. Quite an enjoyable Yule, all in all. Though a trip to the pub would have been welcome.

Now I have had a bit of a hiatus from writing on here, the blog will return to more normal service from here. I'm hoping to manage at least a couple of posts each week. Hopefully, I will have some really interesting topics for you. Right now, though, I have no idea what they are. That said, I still haven't even finished my first coffee yet. I'm not quite ready for thinking about much of anything.

Hearth and home

Toying with the idea of hosting a COVID-19 lockdown-friendly online moot.  Summer is rolling by and it would be nice to see some kind of action from our Hearth this year.

Not sure anyone ould turn up, but it could be an excuse to raise a horn and listen to a little Wardruna or Amon Amarth.

Might be a good way for new people to check out the Hearth without having to actually meet any of us. 

Watch this space. 

Homeschooling - An opportunity to promote the heathen worldview?

Now we're all homebound, I find myself tasked with earning a crust via working from home on my laptop - but also overseeing the schooling of my 8 year old daughter. Now, she's been given plenty of work by her teacher to keep her busy while she's locked in. But I can't silence that little niggling voice in my head (Loki?) that suggests that I should use this opportunity to teach her about norse mythology, the history of the dark ages, ethics (from a heathen viewpoint, naturally) and other choice matters.

Thing is, I don't want to fill her head with stuff that is important to me, but won't actually help her when she does, finally return to school.

I'm hoping that she picks up a lot of my own heathen worldview through what I playfully refer to as "heathen familial osmosis".

Bolton

A sword age, an axe age...

Well reality really is starting to feel a bit "ragnarokian", is it not?

I started out with the idea that this article would be my heathen-inspired advice on how to survive the disappointing and annoying way our fellow citizens of Midgard are choosing to act in this crisis. But, the more I think about it, the more only one message seems important. Now more so than ever.

"Don't be a dick"

If I had the heart for it, I could perhaps go to the trouble of asking someone with the requisite knowledge to translate it into old norse for us. That would certainly make it feel more heathen - but it would only ever detract from the message.

This is where the strong sense of community that heathens are apparently known for should be kicking in. Be nice to others. Check up on your neighbours (from two metres away, naturally) and most important of all - don't be one of those stockpiling nidhings, right!?

See you on the other side.

Skol.