Let’s start this evening’s festivities off with an apology shall we? This will NOT be a very entertaining post, so I’d like to say how sorry I am right out of the box. If this is your first time here (welcome!), I strongly encourage you to go back and read something from last week, and come back tomorrow, when I don’t feel as though someone has just stuck an egg beater inside my skull. For regular visitors to JulieLand, I’m also sorry. Days with too many things in them are chaotic to my smooth brain. No need to worry, just feeling more askew than usual.
Daniel and I got to go and celebrate with Karen earlier. And we visited with people we had not seen in way too long. 
Me and Karen and Stephanie. Our girls were preschoolers alongside Stephanie’s boys. It was great to see friends and spend time with folks we have known for decades.
Our card today is from that unusual deck The Celtic Shaman’s Pack. It is also starting to run out. This one is placed in the category of The Elements, but the grounding doesn’t seem to be working for me. I hope it helps some of you though. (And please, no remarks about what it’s called okay? Thanks.)
“The Elements: contact with the elements is of primary importance for every shaman. From them you learn the mysteries of creation and something of your own relationship to the living world, both inner and outer.”
“The Mound of Wonders ~ Empowerment of Earth.
A green mound with an arched doorway in its side from which stream forth rays of light as though sun were rising within it.
The Mound of Wonders gives access particularly to the realm of earth and inner earth. It gives a firm foundation from which to begin an exploration of any of the worlds, especially those which lack a strongly grounded dimension.
There are many hollow hills in Celtic and faery tradition, in which the wonderous folk of the otherworld dwell. To visit one and to sit or lie upon it is to invite more than wonders. It is to desire admission into the realm of the Lordly Ones, the Fair Folk, the Mothers – to name but three of their many titles. It is also a way into the heart of the element of earth itself, into the body of the primal Mother who gave us life, and to whom we return.
Journey: travel to one of the hollow hills. Knock upon the door which opens in the hillside and ask for entry to the world of inner earth. Call to your totem or empowerer to guide you through and back from this realm. Showing you what you need to learn and keep with you once you have visited.”
Here is the foreign license plate report: Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Illinois (that same one I saw before with the illegal frame), Texas (times two, both new ones that I had not seen before), BC, Arizona, and a commemorative Lewis & Clark one from North Dakota.
I promise, I’ll do better tomorrow. And if I owe you an e-mail, don’t give up on me.
