Introduction - What is a "Keltic Witch?" - (Repost - Updated )

*Repost with updates - original from 2005

So what, you may ask yourself, is a “Keltic Witch”? And, for that matter, how did she come to be? Well, that is a somewhat long story so sit back and enjoy the ride – it is a meandering one.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts. I spent most of my “growing up” years in the Waltham/Watertown area and lived the typical “small town near a big city” life. My brother is 3 years younger than me and we always tried to “out do” each other. Most of our extended family was within an hours ride – if not ½ hour and we spent a lot of time with family while young.

My maternal Grandfather, Da, was a super great cook. He could go out and have a meal and come home and recreate that same meal. It was amazing to watch him at work. He made fantastic dishes in what has to be the smallest kitchen I have ever worked in. Much of my spare time was spent at his knee and so I learned a great love of cooking and creating recipes.

I went to college in Worcester, MA at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit school. I studied Political Science at a time when we were the biggest superpower in the world, the Soviet Union was still our major rival, and terrorism was something that happened only in the Middle East and Ireland.

I tried my hand at everything I thought I wanted to do. I was a banker, office worker, personal trainer, teacher, and finally found that I was good with computers. I made a career out of managing large-scale software implementation projects. I liked what I did and was good at it. It afforded me the ability to travel and see the country.

I fell in love with a man in the U.S. Navy. He was dashing and handsome. We eloped and planned a great life while he was on leave. He went back to his duty station in Japan and we found I was pregnant. Not a huge obstacle, we could handle it! After 3 months, he was killed while out to sea in a training accident and I was alone. Six months later, I had my son and vowed he would have the best I could provide.

For four years, I scraped and sold myself to the company with the highest bid so I could raise my son. I landed in Texas and met the one man I was born to love forever. My husband, my friend. He smoothed all my rough edges and polished my hurts. It has been nineteen of the best years I could hope for. We have our oldest son and our “bitty boy” too. Our lives are so peaceful.

In a few years, we will move out of the big city and have land and a ranch to enjoy with our boys out of the mess of the city. God Bless my family, please.

It's Not the Guns........

I’m going to be blunt - some won’t like it. Florida wasn’t the fault of the gun. It’s the fault of society. Everyone who wanted to be their kid’s “bestie” rather than their parent - you bear some responsibility. Everyone who raised a little brat, but figured someone else would fix it; who shoved a pill rather than applied a spanking - look in the mirror.

It’s not the gun in the hand that is the problem. It’s what is in the heart (or isn’t depending on how you look at it)

Guns haven’t changed. They’ve been in our nation and part of our lives for over 200 years. They are a tool. A tool like a hammer or a saw.

Some people in America don’t need that tool for their lives. Some people do need it. Depends on the lifestyle you’ve chosen - urban, suburban, rural, country, city - or other. Or, your choice - because we live in a nation where liberty and freedom have a cost and that cost is being responsible.

What has changed is the problem.

Pills instead of parenting - “Ritalin makes Johnny behave so I don’t have to be mean.”

Violent media - music, videos, movies, games - desensitize kids to the value of life.

Erosion of the community - we couldn’t do bad stuff, because some neighbor would tell our parents - no one wants to step in today.

Not supporting teachers - “my kid wouldn’t....” or not supporting other role models. Rewarding losing - failure is a great teacher - but, we didn’t get a medal for failing, we got the lesson.

Not teaching morals, values or faith in something more than ourselves. Right and wrong exist - they are black and white. Evil exists - you don’t have to believe in Satan or the devil - but, he sure believes in you. When you don’t have rock solid foundations of right and wrong, evil slithers in and says “it’s ok....it feels good, doesn’t it - so it’s ok then...”.

It’s not what is in the hand that needs to change. It’s the hearts. We can do it and it doesn’t even take one more law on the books.

Start parenting. Stop shoving pills down the throats of young people. Be your parents - and teach the things your parents taught - right and wrong, good and evil, morals and values. Discipline kids. Don’t let them play GTA or other games where it’s ok to shoot people in the head. Teach that life is precious.

Then, you’ll see a change for the better.

Go down the other road and in 10 years we will be arguing about banning knives, then hammers, next rocks.

Make the right choice - but that requires self-examination and admitting that maybe values aren’t relative. Maybe everything permissive isn’t good for us.  Maybe fantasy or fiction shouldn’t be celebrated as truth.

I have faith in people. We can do this.

Thoughts on Las Vegas...........

I have a general note about Las Vegas. It's actually the same note I have whenever something heinous like this is carried out by some Godless, soul-sucker. It's a good note - so I will reuse it until we need a new one. 

There has been evil in the world since the fall. There will always be evil in the world. It is an active force. It seeks out the cold, empty hearts of men who have no faith in God or anything larger than themselves. It is easy for evil, in its insidious way, to snake in and plant roots in those sad hopeless souls. 

Guns have been - and will continue to be - tools. Tools of the huntsman, outdoorsman, sportsman, rancher, farmer, vet, stockman. Tools of the solider, defender, LEO, and myriad others. They are tools. They serve distinct purposes. 

Currently, in the media of the American left, they serve the purpose of being a target (pun intended). These hapless, uninformed talking heads push more misinformation on an ignorant, sycophantic, worshipful audience who absorb and readily 'lather, rinse, repeat' every word. 

It's not their fault - not really. The left are programmed that "guns are bad". In a world where morals are relative and nothing is off limits - guns are unequivocally bad. This programming - in the progressive cities of the coasts - begins at birth. 

As a result, progressives and left-minded people of all ages have never held, touched, and many times even seen a real fire arm. If they have fired one, it was probably a scout camp and was one small experience in a world of others where reinforcement of the fact that 'guns are bad' was the lesson that was pushed. 

Now, we know guns are tools and we know hammers are tools; a gun is no more evil than a hammer in the right hands.  A gun is no more capable of getting up and killing someone than a screwdriver or a knife. 

I would recommend that people learn about the tools they seek to ban others from having. Learn actual facts - not NPR biased facts or CNN biased facts. Actual facts. 

How do we stop it?  Honestly, we can't stop evil. If he wasn't able to get guns to kill, he would have used bombs or some other thing.  That is my word on Vegas. 

Oh, in another report, a man, in London mowed down a bunch of innocent people with a car.   Another tool.

Racism - Worse or......Not?

I have spent the better part of the past 2 days being told that I am a racist - because I want to know what racism or oppression successful, strong, athletes at the top of their game are suffering in a nation where a black president just finished his second term. 

I don't see racism as a burgeoning problem in the US. I don't because the people I know, work with, associate with and meet don't count their friends, interactions or acquaintances by the color of their skin. 

When you read articles about the "growing problem of racism" in the US, or look at polls about racism, these are all subjective. They all say racism is getting worse, because people feel that racism is getting worse. 

But, there isn't any quantifiable evidence, empirical, measurable studies that show that racism is worse today than in the past. In fact, everything that can be measured shows that racism is at its lowest rate than ever before. 

So how is there a disconnect this big between what is real and what people feel is real?

All the articles point to blacks being shamelessly targeted by police and that this is one factor that makes it clear that racism is growing. Yet, when actual numbers and statistics are analyzed, we find this narrative false. 

So why the divide?  Because we are being told more and more often, in news and print media, on radio and by pundits, that this is the case. 

Why would the people we trust for news and information push and present this type of lie?  Indeed, that is an excellent question. One I have been asking for a while. 

I can only extrapolate, given the numbers, the facts, and the polls, that the false narrative serves the purpose of someone or ones who are powerful and who wants the US to be in a state of racial and civic unrest. 

You have to ask yourself a couple of questions: first - are you a cruel, callous racist who would see your neighbor fail? And, if not that - then who would this unrest serve? 

Stop buying the lies you are being fed and look at true facts and numbers. Look it up. 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451466/police-violence-against-black-men-rare-heres-what-data-actually-say

Let's start our world turning again....how about it?

"Where were you when the  world stopped turning, on that September day...."  so begins Alan Jackson's song commemorating the loss Americans faced on September 11, 2001.

I was driving to the barn this morning to tend my horses when this song came on the radio and sent my thoughts back through the years to that morning almost thirteen years ago.  

I was working from my home office that day.  Coming across the living room, I could see the MSNBC Home Page on my PC.  It looked like a building fire and the headline said a plane had hit the WTC Tower.  I thought a small plane like a Cessna had crashed and turned on the TV to see if people were okay.  As I sat to watch the report, the world changed forever....

Now, Americans can see the changes that were wrought that day.  Some for the better and some not so.  If we, as Americans, want to pass on the traditions of our childhood to the generations to come, we need to stand up now and make some changes in our lives.

There are so many groups that are separated from other groups by ideology.  There are groups that hate other groups because they are different.  There are groups that want to win so badly that they will lie about those who disagree with them....this HAS to stop.

We ALL have too much at stake to continue on with this acrimonious environment.  America has for centuries been the shining example.  The one bright light held up for all to reach for across a world that was ever changing.  Americans were the bravest, the best, heroes larger than life.

Today, we have become "R" or "D"; white or black or brown; Christian or Jew; left or right; straight or gay.  No more.  We have more in common that brings us together than we have to drive us apart.  America's best days and best citizens are before her.  Look at your neighbor, your colleague, your friend and think about the gifts of Liberty we have that others only wish for.

America is the "land of opportunity" and we have the ability to work for the life we want.  We can dream of what we want our life to be and then work to create for real, that picture in our heads.  We don't need "universal health-care" or a "welfare state".  We don't need bailouts or handouts or an "escape" - we have the freedom to be whatever we want.  That is a great gift - a miracle for some.

With that possibility and promise of success through hard work comes responsibility too.  Because we have opportunity and the ability to rise above circumstance, we also have risk.  We might fail.  We might not reach our ultimate goal.  That is true.  

Some will fail to reach their goal.  Some may be hurt by that failure.  Some may be crushed.  Some will be galvanized by that failure to even greater success.  It all depends on YOUR attitude. 

You can fail and say "poor me, it isn't fair.  I should have won and someone should make it okay for me".  You can wallow in that for your lifetime.  A bitter, angry shell of what you were meant to be.

You could, instead, use that failure to learn from and pick yourself up from your fall to move forward - smarter, stronger - and more empowered than before.  Consistent action and persistent will can lead to achievement.

Which path will you choose for your life?  Remember - it's not just you and your dreams on the line - you are reaching for your goal - but you are also forging a stronger country - one successful American at a time.