Ahh yup. Already have the provisions made in my will. I'm to be cremated and half my ashes are to be sent home to Canada. They'll be scattered in the cemetary in Baysville in northern Ontario, where my cottage was growing up. The other half will be going to be scattered at Deir el Bahri in Egypt. 

Mirror, mirror on the wall, can I be anything? Anything at all?
 
Here we are, the High Holy Days that special time when we are encouraged, indeed commanded, to engage in a time of self-reflection; to look within ourselves and examine what we find there. The phrase, “Take a good hard look at yourself.” springs to mind.
 
It was this phrase that tugged at my memory as I was sitting down to think of a theme for my sermon this year. It tugged and tugged until I remembered where I’d last come across those particular words. It was in a Xena Warrior Princess fan fiction I’d read many years ago, and I felt it was particularly apropos to the season.
 
In the story, Xena and Gabrielle are making their way through an unknown temple and Xena happens upon a large mirror. Standing in front of the mirror, she says aloud the saying her mother had always said to her. “Take a good hard look at yourself.”  Now the mirror was magic and this phrase activated the enchantment.  Xena’s personality was split and all the good part of her was trapped inside the mirror, while all the bad remained within her physical body.
 
The story continued with the adventures Gabrielle has as she tries to prevent this evil Xena going on a serious rampage and, of course trying to break the enchantment.  She eventually managed to re-integrate Xena’s personality in all its complexity of good and bad traits.  The story has a wonderfully simple moral. We as human beings are not completely one thing or the other, we are a combination of both and it is how we manage those good, not so good and bad parts of ourselves that is the measure of who we are.
 
I was also quite caught up with the idea of mirrors and how we actually see ourselves when we look in them.  I mean really, physically see ourselves. What struck me is that we are always on the inside looking out. As we move about our daily lives, what parts of ourselves do we actually see?
 
Well, by far the parts we see the most are our hands. They pass in front of us as we do all our daily tasks and this familiarity with this part of ourselves is perhaps quite fitting as it is with our hands that we tear things down and of course, it is with our hands that we build and create our world.  It is our hands that we see as we reach out to hit or to caress, to push away or to clasp hands. We have no excuse for not being aware of what our hands are doing; they are what we always see of ourselves.
 
Oddly, the other part of our bodies that is equally as powerful and important is a part we only ever see when we look into a mirror or other reflective surface. That part is our mouth, our lips. The power that our words have is tremendous and as an instrument to measure our conduct they can be essential. And yet we never actually see our mouths at work unless we are looking into a mirror as we speak, and if that’s what we are doing, who are our words directed toward except maybe ourselves?
 
Mirrors can be powerful things, they have been a luxury possession for thousands of years, they feature in mythology, fairy tales and modern literature.
 
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the Fairest of them all?” So asks the wicked Queen in Snow White. It is generally accepted that the Queen’s vice and folly was to be in love with her own physical beauty. That is the danger of mirrors really, as Narcissus found to his detriment as well.  How often do we look in our mirrors noting only the physical reflection, never looking deeper, never looking ourselves in the eye?
 
I’ve often wondered if on the day the Queen’s magic mirror answered that Snow White was the was the fairest of them all, that it was actually Yom Kippur and the answer was about Snow White’s fair conduct not her fair features; if perhaps the Mirror was trying to give a warning to the Queen to adjust her conduct and not her make-up.

The fact is, truly looking into a mirror can be a challenge. When we do, are we like the man who sees his reflection and says, “The face is familiar, but the name escapes me.” Do we really see ourselves?
 
Are we like the cartoon of the woman who sees not her face but the back of her head reflected? Is what we see the same as what others see?
 
Are we like the soldier who marches past a mirror and sees his reflection saluting, even though his arms are swinging at his side? Do we see our past actions?
 
Are we like the cartoon Mr Potato Head who looks in the mirror and sees himself as a French fry? Do we see our future selves?
 
Seriously, what do we see?
 
I set the children a challenge in last week’s Rosh Hashanah children’s service. I asked them each to look in a mirror for five seconds, to really look themselves in the eye. I told them not to look at their nose, or to notice their freckles or if their hair was messy, but just to look at themselves.  As the mirror was passed along you could have heard a pin drop in the Library. All ten of them, aged 8-12, took up the challenge and some of the comments that arose afterward were wonderful! The true meaning of Yom Kippur was felt and heard in that service.
 
Amongst the comments was the somewhat expected, “I never knew five seconds was so long.”

 But there was also the more considered, “I look sad.” Or “I remember pushing my brother.” Or “I saw myself helping my teacher.”

And then came the most wonderful comment from one of the children who I’d noticed had smiled for the whole five seconds they’d looked at themselves, this child said. “I see me. Really me. And I see what I want to be.”

I asked that child what they wanted to be and was truly humbled by their reply.

“I want to be the person that puts a smile on all the faces in all the mirrors in the world.”  I was stunned and not just a little teary eyed at this response. Talk about a worthy ambition.

So this is the challenge I’d like to leave you with on this Yom Kippur. When you go home tonight, stop and take the time to look into your mirror, and to really look yourself in the eye.  Five seconds, ten seconds or more, whatever you can manage, but look and really see yourself. Don’t hide away, see the bad and see the good, but most importantly see the potential for the future good that is always there for you.

My wish for you all is that you will be like the little orange tabby cat who looks in the mirror and sees his great potential in the Lion’s reflection looking back at him.
 

Wake the Muse Prompt from jbthedelirious – Harry Potter movie night.

 

Warlocks and Witches and Wizards Oh My!

Pairing: Mirandy

Rating: PG

 

( a magical evening... )

 

Prompt from lady_orlean on June 20th, 2011 05:52 pm (UTC)

Andy/Miranda

Drunk+ Name Tattoo

That never gets old.... *gg*

 

What’s in a name?

By Xenavirgin (XV)

Mirandy PG13ish

 

( mark my..... )

 

 

She Gives Good Aural

 

A/N    Queensland Flood Appeal Auction fic for the lovely and generous Flyhiwithme, who allowed me to choose from a number of ideas I was already working on for her Auction winning story.  Flyhiwithme you have the pockets and patience of a saint, and my humble thanks for your generosity.

Pairing: Miranda/Andy

Rating: G

Disclaimer:  Last time I looked my passport didn’t say Weisberger, or 20^th Century Fox, so I ain’t them. Nothing is mine, I make no money from my scribbles. Go on and sue me if you must, I’ll enjoy reading femslash out loud in court.

 

( now hear this.... )

 

She Gives Good Aural  Part I

 

A/N    Queensland Flood Appeal Auction fic for the lovely and generous Flyhiwithme, who allowed me to choose from a number of ideas I was already working on for her Auction winning story.  Flyhiwithme you have the pockets and patience of a saint, and my humble thanks for your generosity.

Pairing: Miranda/Andy

Rating: G

Disclaimer:  Last time I looked my passport didn’t say Weisberger, or 20^th Century Fox, so I ain’t them. Nothing is mine, I make no money from my scribbles. Go on and sue me if you must, I’ll enjoy reading femslash out loud in court.

***

 

( now hear this... )

 Part 2

A Blessing

Pairing: Miranda/Andy

Rating: G

Disclaimer:  Nothing is mine, I make no money from my scribbles. Go on and sue me if you must, I’ll enjoy reading femslash out loud in court.

A/N 1 Okay been a long dry spell but I have been writing and working on several things all at once. This short piece came to me rather suddenly and kind of wrote itself.

A/N 2  Please note that most of the dialogue in the flashback is taken from the film, until the point I diverge after Andy questions whether she wants to be like Miranda.

A/N 3 The Hebrew phrases used herein are transliterated as per the Sephardi pronunciation and the translations are approximate. Many, many thanks for Needledink's correction of my Hebrew (The Lady Wife is the Hebrew scholar not me, heh) for the following.  "Ani ohevet otach l'olam = I will love you forever." Thanks again Nic.

 

( Read more... )

 

Beyond a shadow of a doubt it would be Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables and all the subsequent Anne books. She was intelligent, joyous and truly compassionate, and she managed to be all these things despite a heinous early life. An amazing and wonderful character.

Has to be Prince's 1999. It is the one dance that despite having one bad knee, one worse knee and a dicky ankle, I will always get up and dance to if it's played.  As to the why? Well I suppose it is the encompassment of my teenage years and represents a troubled but amazing time in my life and well it's a damn good song too, lolol.