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Saraswati[/caption]
In addition to the Pagan Blog Project, this post is also for the Cauldron Blog Project. January's theme is Resolutions, Habits, and New Beginnings.
I'm not sure I believe the idea that you should begin the year as you wish to go on, except in the sense of creating and focusing intent. Like many superstitions, however, I think about it anyway. Even if it's just the first day of a new habit, getting started is important. If you don't do the thing, all the planning and resolving in the world won't help.
I spent most of New Years writing. I figure there's no better indication of what I want to focus on this year. Fiction especially, and I have some non-fiction projects I'm in love with, but I'd really just love to get more writing done in general. The problem for me is that often writing is the first thing out the window when I get stressed or anxious, but at the same time writing is a thing that makes me feel better almost immediately when I'm productive.
I have, in the past, managed to build a write-every-day habit, but at the moment, that's fallen away. I want to make another go at it this year, starting... well, ASAP, if not actually this week. I'm pretty swamped at work this week. And to go along with that, I want to have a practice, of sorts, for when I'm in need of inspiration.
When I first wandered away from the Greek gods, I wasn't sure who I wanted to be working with, and I spent a few months of my Christopagan-Catholic-Occultist phase trying to get Brigid's attention. I never did click with her, but she did inspire the first prayer I ever wrote. I'm not going to inflict it on you, but rest assured it came complete with sarcastic parenthetical notes. I've never been very good at serious, solemn piety.
These days when I'm facing writers block, if I turn to anyone it's usually Saraswati. I came across an image of her at the Goodwill the other day and now she's sitting in my planner, marking the page in the notes section where I'm writing down story and blog post ideas. I'd like to do a bit more with her this year. Normally this would mean research!!! and while I'll do some of that, I also want to put up an altar for her.
Why an altar? Because right now I don't have a dedicated workspace. Sometimes I sit at the kitchen table, and sometimes on the couch, and sometimes in bed or at the sewing table. This is... not the most productive of situations. Getting a desk, and an altar, will both make it physically more comfortable to write and give me an impetus to do it.
In the meantime, of course, I'm writing where I can. But if writing is my primary magical focus - and it is right now - then it makes sense to have a working altar, and that altar should be a writing desk. Step one is to do it, but step two is to do it better. Not to settle or say, hey, good enough. I've been settling for good enough for too long.