Sunfire asks us this week what we have plans for on Beltane.

Well, unfortunately, I have to work on Beltane, so any normal rituals I may have done are pretty much out the window. For the most part, my day will be spent talking on the phone with customers and helping them out with their problems. :/

To be honest, I have no actually celebrated Beltane since starting my path. I’m always at work! LOL Seems like that’s one of the days I can’t seem to get away from work on. I’ve celebrated Samhain, Mabon, & Yule, but the rest always land on the wrong days of the week for some reason.

Hopefully next year I can actually have a ritual or at least properly celebrate Beltane instead of running around paying bills and working.

Sunfire asks if being Pagan/Wiccan makes you more eco-conscious or if being Pagan/Wiccan and being green are two seperate things.

Well, it just depends. I know plenty of non-Pagans who are eco-conscious. I know plenty of Pagans who are not. I tend to be a bit more eco-conscious than I was before I started to follow my Wiccan path. Granted living in my apartment make recycling a bit on the difficult side, as I don’t get a recycle bin and our recycling center is only for those items that are not taken by the city.

I’ve tried to get my landlords to look into the dumpster company’s recycling program, but frankly, they tend not to want to pay the extra costs involved with doing so. So, I don’t get to recycle as much as I would like. That’s definitely one of the reasons I’d like to move – I’d like to find a place that I can actually recycle.

I’m preparing to switch to the new, eco-friendly lightbulbs, although honestly, I feel they’re not much more eco-friendly than regular incandescent bulbs. The reason I say this is that frankly, they have way too much packaging. I mean, seriously. My friends purchase them and they have so much packaging and it’s all plastic. They have more packaging than the regular bulbs from my perspective. Bleh.

But I do try to purchase items that included recycled materials for the packaging. I try to recycle when I can and when I can’t I feel badly about it. There is a lot more I could be doing to be green, but then again, there’s a lot more everyone could be doing to be green.

Sunfire asks “Are you in or out of the broom closet?”

Some of us are in the broom closet at home and out at work. Some are out at work but not at home. Some are out online but not offline. Some are out offline but not online. I am out everywhere. Then again, I’m claustrophobic and so stuffing me into a broom closet may just be detrimental to everyone’s well being!

I was in the broom closet with my mother, more because frankly, I was not about to upset a dying woman with worrying about her daughter’s spiritual choices. I’ve felt her presence with me several times over the 4 years since she passed away (April 20 was the 4 year mark) and have never felt any animosity for my spiritual choices. So I can only believe that she does not care and is just happy that I am me.

I have several friends who are devout Christians/Mormons and they are still my friends. They know who and what I am and have not abandoned me. I do not hesitate to tell people at work that I am Wiccan, and if someone says “you’re going to hell” I merely smile and nod. If that is what they wish to believe, that is what they may believe. I don’t believe it so I don’t care.

I have found I much prefer being out of the broom closet than being in it. It’s much roomier out here, I don’t have to witness hangers multiplying in droves, and nothing falls on my head (usually).