This month’s Community Altar is dedicated to everyone who is dealing with health issues. So many people in my circles of friends have recently been confronted with significant health challenges (cancer, heart surgery, and the like) that creating an altar for healing was definitely this month’s work.

The various colors of roses represent the love and support offered by family and friends.

The Ancestor Candle (scrollwork holder, front left) represents the love and support of the Ancestors.

The Community Candle (curved holder, back right) is the energy of the Community—family, friends, and the larger community around us.

The blue candle (back, left) is inscribed with healing words and dressed with rosemary (strength), mint (reviving), and lavender (soothing) oils.

The bindrune is the center of the altar, and focuses the healing energies. The bindrune is made of three runes:
Uruz: physical strength, stamina, healing energies, to sustain you as you recuperate.
Mannaz: the self, that you may be restored to yourself.
Berkana: healing and growth, to support your energies as you heal.

This is a prayer you can recite when you are praying for someone else, or change it to the first person if you are praying for yourself. This was written for a female friend who uses she/her pronouns; adjust accordingly.

Prayer to Mengloth and Eir for Healing
by Anastasia Haysler

Hail, Mengloth! Hail, Eir!
Wise women, skilled healers,
Jotun and Asynja,
Friends and peers in your essential work,
I call upon you for healing [name]!

Bless her as she heals;

If she burns with fever, and calls for relief from the fire;
Cool her with your knowledge.

If she shakes with chill, and calls for relief from the cold;
Warm her with your herbs.

If she aches in her body, and calls for relief from the pain;
ease her aches with your charms.

If she struggles to breathe, and calls for relief from breathlessness;
return the air to her lungs with your works.

Bless her with a return to good health,
That she may be restored to her full self,
And restored to her daily life.

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Today I asked my body what she needed
~ Hollie Holden

Today I asked my body what she needed,
Which is a big deal
Considering my journey of
Not Really Asking That Much.

I thought she might need more water.
Or protein.
Or greens.
Or yoga.
Or supplements.
Or movement.

But as I stood in the shower
Reflecting on her stretch marks,
Her roundness where I would like flatness,
Her softness where I would like firmness,
All those conditioned wishes
That form a bundle of
Never-Quite-Right-Ness,
She whispered very gently:

Could you just love me like this?

I have been grumpy for a while. Seriously cranky and irritable and generally displeased with everything since mid-March, when I caught a cold on a business trip, and spent 12 days in Europe, unable to breathe and running a fever and not having a good time in any way, while doing business and missing out on a lot of wonderful experiences because I was too sick to leave the hotel.

My friends have been kind and patient (far more than I would expect anyone to be), and listened supportively as I express my dissatisfaction with myself, my life, and the world at large.

But, oh, my gods, I’m sick of it, and I’m tired of hearing myself be unhappy and dissatisfied with everything.

There’s nothing wrong with venting about real problems, but I realized I had become stuck in a permanent state of “I hate everything and nothing works and everything sucks and I’m tired”. And, most of all, I was tired of listening to myself.

I have a gratitude journal practice, but that wasn’t helping. On the spur of the moment, I grabbed a small L!fe notebook given to me by my friend Cindy a few months ago. I don’t usually use tiny notebooks, but I stashed this one with the idea that I’d think of something to do with it.

So, on this particular day (May 1, as a matter of fact), I was tired of my own voice in my own head, and I grabbed this notebook, noted the date, and wrote, “The rose that was dug out from the back yard two years ago has resurfaced, and has bloomed unexpectedly.”

I felt better.

The notebook now lives in my purse, so it goes with me everywhere. It sits on my desk as I work at the office, and on the desk in my study at home as I write (or think about writing, or pretend to think about writing, depending on the day).

That the notebook maker is called “L!fe” is not a subtlety.

Now, when I have a cranky thought, I stop and write a note about one good thing in my little notebook.

“One of the neighbors is baking, and the breeze is carrying the scent to our yard.”

“There are clean sheets on the bed, waiting for me at the end of the day.”

“I polished my boots yesterday, and they are wonderfully shiny.”

Little things.

Good things.

Things that will make a difference only if I stop and notice them.

And they’re so wonderful, why would I choose to ignore them?

Then I go back to the cranky thought to see if it still matters.

It usually doesn’t.