"I intend to live forever, or die trying"---Groucho Marx

It’s that time again, my birthday.  This Saturday I will be crossing another threshold, turning another corner and along the way I (in the usual Sonya style) have found myself taking inventory.  In this past year I have been grown!  There were some times when I thought I would just “give up” or “could not take it anymore” but thank the Goddess she sent me friends who said…”You can do it!  Sonya, you are wonderful.  We love you!”  I realized this year, for a young woman who had a baby to early in life thus socially stubbing herself in the toe.  I had outgrown my awkwardness, I am not a stumbling colt anymore I have friends.  True friends, and plenty of them.

Terry Riley says “True friends walk in the door when troubles hit you; the other kind walk out.”  How right he is.  Rev. Terry Riley, Rev. Amanda Riley, Gary and Anita, Rev. Tim and Rev. Edwina Rickman, Anne Pelloth and Tom Evans, Pat Tobias and Brian Cris all stepped in the door of my life when times were really tough this year and fed me, soothed me, told me like it was, and helped me get my groove back.  I pray that when I as an elder, see someone else going through the same disappointment in life I remember this time and “reach out and extend” and open the door to their life and offer them the same.

I have acquired some new best friends.  Allison Hancock (yes a fellow Highpriestess and Clergy also) has through time and trials proven to be my best friend.  She can be a fiery woman when crossed, a strong shoulder to cry on or lean on, and the person who when you are weary helps you carry your load.  John Hancock has surprised me in ways I could not comprehend.  He handles life with a sarcastic dry humor but understands that when the “crap falls” it takes a team of people to “have your back” and he gracefully uses the power of air and his “unique peaceful” take on life to help you see things in perspective.  I need that perspective.  I crave that perspective.  Sometimes, I am just pushing and shoving and striving and running so fast that I have no idea what is really going on and when I find myself tired or weary the Hancock family is where I find myself going for “manna”.  

Pretty new in my life, but not less special nor less loyal are Cindy Mcmullin, Angela Crossen, and Michele Acred.  Cindy is relatively new to my circle and life; but I knew when I met her she was a “friend for life” it just clicked and we fit.  Now granted our personalities are equally bombastic and just as fiery but if you get two women the live in the fire quadrant together you do not get troubles you get women who love strong women.  You find that Goddesses like Cindy become not “more scarce” but more prevalent and when I needed it most she has halved my job load and elegantly increased hers J Her laugh is a “classic witch” cackle, her friends many, and her heart is as big as whale.  I am so blessed to have a woman such as this choose to share my path and her path in my lifetime.  

Angela and Michele are a couple in our Temple.  Not new to the Pagan community, but relatively new to my life.  They are hardworking, upbeat, positive, funny, inquisitive, open, and very smart.  One has the brain of a scientific engineer and the other of a creative genius.  Their marriage is one that makes people smile with happiness and understanding.  Their example of how to deal with troubles amazing; and when I see them show up (no matter what) my tension eases, a smile spreads on my face, and my eyes start to dance once again.  More people need people like this in their lives, more people should be like this…and I pray that for hanging out with them and living with them I will become more like them because they are just “great people to aspire to be like”. 

* It should be stated here that Angela Crossen freely and NOT drugged chose to be my maiden through one of the busiest and toughest times I personally have ever gone through and the Temple as a whole went through.  She hustled, she bouyed me up, she laughed, distracted me, got me back on track, and in the process of her questions I found myself loving what I do and remembering why I do it again.  I could not have ASKED for a better maiden and friend so I KNOW Isis had something to do with it.

Lastly, but not less importantly are the three quite men in my life.  Daniel Meyers, Brian Miller (my hubby), and Clifton Stallsmith (my oldest son) they are not truly quite just compared to me they seem timid!  (LMAO)  They listen, they take in details, they calmly take in every situation, and just when you think you might throw up your emotional hands and walk away because you cannot figure something out they calmly state it exactly like it is.  They are like the book of directions you forgot to read while assembling and Ikea bookshelf.  If you would have asked them first, and then taken the time to listen after they had thoroughly processed your question in their zen like state you might just learn something; but if you are like me you are too busy trying to pain the world some intense color to take the time to listen to the guru while he is thinking!  After all there is grocery shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and classes, and rituals to plan, and decorations to assemble, and things to write.  In the meantime, they sat there took it all in and finished the project by the time you got around to it.  Yes, still waters run deep.  How great-full I am to have such men in my circle of life.

Now that I have written this list I find that what amazes me the most is that I have such wonderful, talented, smart, creative, inspirational, amazing people IN my life.  Not observing my life, or reading about my life, but participating in my life (though I do like it when they read about my life also). No, better than that CONSCIOUSLY choosing to participate in my life, and with me!  There I said it, I cannot truly comprehend how people such as this have chosen to honor me with not only the gift of their time, but with their friendship and love but they have.  Then I have no idea what Isis sees in me either or Osiris but hey I run with it; I would be a fool not to celebrate the Gods and the great people who choose to love me. So thank you all of you for the specialness you lend to me and my life I would not be who I am without you...you make life vibrant, rich, and berry berry abundant!

So this year, when I turn twenty five (wink wink, nod, nod, you get the picture) I am going to celebrate the wonderful gift of people that the Gods have brought into my life.  I have always admired people that had lots of wonderful people as friends.  I have surrounded myself all my life with pictures and quotes from people who inspired me but those were magazine pictures and handwritten quotes that I jotted down from books. I look up, I see the truth.  I need no magazine cutouts.  I need no handwritten copies from books.  My friends are the real thing.  They are the kind of people I want to be, inspire me to be better, and show me that anything at all can happen.  Now if that isn’t a magical birthday gift I have no idea what is!

So Happy Birthday Sonya Miller!  You lost ONE best friend many years ago on your birthday but you gained MANY more and there is no greater rich person than he or she that has surrounded themselves with TRUE friends.

Thank you all for reading me ANOTHER year and for participating in my life also...for I do not write for myself alone...I write to commune and communicate with others!   Next year, I am aiming for a book!