Diane Sylvan at Dancing Down the Moon has a wonderful post about living your truth. I think everyone needs to be reminded every so often that it is more important to live out your convictions in your everyday life and let that be a testimony to others than to argue and try to convince people that you are right. The post is about veganism but the principle can be applied to every aspect of life.

I’ve decided to attend a Unitarian church this Sunday. I’m not really sure why I’m drawn to this right now. I’ve never really understood Unitarianism. I couldn’t figure out how a church with no established creed functioned. But yesterday I saw a statement that sort of made it make sense to me. It said that Unitarians don’t care what you believe – they care about the results of your beliefs. In other words what do you do about it? What are you doing for social justice, environmental protection, etc? That interests me. I found a church in a small town north of here. It was established in the 1820s. It is a small congregation and that scares me a bit. I like to be anonymous and I won’t be there. I grew up in a small church and there was lots of drama so I’m wary but I’ll try it. I have to admit I’m more curious about the people who attend a Unitarian church in a very rural community than I am in the people in the city who are Unitarians. That’s awfully stereotypical of me. After all, I live here and I’m interested. Why does it surprise me that other people are too?

I own a book called 365 Goddesses: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess by Patricia Telesco. Today’s Goddess is Hestia. For some reason I’ve been drawn to her lately. I usually don’t work with any specific Goddesses. My faith is much more nature based and I tend to see the Gods and Goddesses as archetypes. But I’ve found myself lighting candles before cleaning or seriously cooking and saying brief prayers to Hestia almost without noticing. I don’t check this book out every day so opening it and seeing that the entry was about Hestia seemed like quite a coincidence to me.

“As a hearth goddess, she provides the spiritual energy necessary to keep our faith sure and the inner fires buring bright. Greek art did not try to portray this Goddess, because she was considered the beginning – the source from which all else was ignited and set in motion.”

I looked Hestia up on Wikipedia and the entry was slightly dismissive. It said that she didn’t have many myths because she didn’t go on adventures. That’s sort of the point. She stayed home and kept everything functioning while everyone else was running around getting into trouble.

I made a point today of honoring her. I lit a candle in my sewing room and used incense as an offering. I’m working on a quilt that I will be giving to charity. I asked her blessing for it and for the person who will receive it. I enjoy the peace I feel after I make a conscious effort to attend to my spiritual side. It always make me wonder why I tend to forget and not make a point of having a daily practice.