I love living in the country! Even if I can still see my neighbours homes, there is still much more physical privacy than is ever afforded in the city. I am a middle aged grandmother, so in the bitter cold of winter I may choose to work by the fire or in my kitchen.
Yet the lovely thing is that I can choose... that I can go outside and work without having the neighbours wondering and worrying. And before the keyboards catch on fire, once one is out of the broom closet, almost everything is viewed through 'witchy colored' lenses, eh?
Belly dancing barefoot by the pond! Digging a deep hole to plant a new shrub! Even the regular wildlife visits that are the reward for the work invested to be a designated backyard wildlife habitat! If it is out of the 'ordinary', it has been cause for speculation!
Mind you, there is always an upside! I must be the only yard on the road that is not haunted by Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormoms on Saturday mornings! If I do not get to see any of the kids trick or treating, I also miss out on the merry go round of door to door selling services that are neither wanted or needed.
Still, it is a shame seeing children in this day and age being brought up to be prejudiced. Long before I came out of the broom closet, that collective country consciousness tweaked to the idea that I might be a 'little different'. For years I was actually referred to as 'that herb woman that lives on the foot of the mountain'
I will never forget the time that a couple of the neighbours kids ... with Dad waiting in the truck ... knocked on my door to ask if I had seen their lost puppy. As they were leaving, I could hear them say " gee I don't know why we aren't allowed to come here ... she SEEMS very nice" !
At the end of the day, whether one is a Baptist or a Buddist ... a Calvinist or a Catholic ... a Witness or a Witch ... the important thing is to be true to yourself. I do believe that the core values that most religions have in common sit at the center of the Wheel of Life ... and that the different religions are just spokes on The Wheel.
