Today, I set my altar for spring. I went for a walk to buy some cloth, and yes, before you ask, I am the kind of girl who goes for walks in the squalling rain. I find it's the best time to have a conversation with the powers upstairs, good prayer time. It's like I'm on their turf, or we're meeting halfway. I have had some incredibly rewarding experiences alone in the rain, very personal ones and moving ones. It's purifying in a way, the sensation of being soaked to the skin and yet so calm.

I bought cloth in peach blossom and sage green. I buffed my brass taper holders and set out the shells and stones I collected on the shore. Sage, salt, a wreath of dried flowers and a vase of fresh ones. New, fresh, vibrant. Symbolic, so much of my life is symbolic. I cleaned out my room and bathed it in the light of amber-scented candles. I feel very much at peace.

My vocal lesson went well-- the Puccini piece is coming along well, and I've been working on the translation to DuParc's "Chanson Triste," because a piece is always much more meaningful to me if I have some personal investment in it. Besides, I love Jean Lahor's poetry-- he also wrote the text to "Extase," which is one of my personal favorite songs in any language. It's so... quietly beautiful, desperately passionate in a whisper. The sigh of the calm between lovers.

Astronomy comes now, and so I have to leave now. It feels a little like leaving sacred space, since I've spent a good amount of time today creating just that. A place of calm and beauty.