I feel so grateful to heathenism, for helping me to grasp a holistic spirituality that does not divide me from my wholeness but keeps me grounded in common sense and the earth. It has helped me to realize that single variables in life, no matter how wonderful, do not make paradise simply by maximizing them to the neglect of everything else. Life is about fibre and texture, which requires many threads in the weave. It has helped me to see that I need my connection to the earth as much as I need my connection to the sky. It has helped me to affirm the struggle in life and that it is ok, even meaningful, that life is often a struggle, and, that I am in struggle rather than perfection, that I experience conflict and passion as often as I inhabit serenity and love, is not a mark against my spirituality, but rather a sign that life is complex and rich and full of knotted goodness. And at times it's bad ; not good at all. In those times we fight to make it better, and we often suffer in the fight. Too much fight and we can lose our humanity and love, and this is important to hold onto, but what heathenism teaches is that sometimes too little fight can lose us the same. There's the pragmatism of the farmer and the ecstasy of the poet, and the love of life of both. There's a place for your curmudgeon and a place for your idealist, a place for your shrewdness, and a place for your highest nobility. Praise be the Gods! They are demanding, and they are compassionate. They are wise, and they are understanding. And they desire such rich, rich goodness for each of us that they ask us to work so we can harvest the best life has to offer us. It's hard work ; it's good work ; praise be the Gods!