Once again I haven’t had time to do the Wednesday Wrap-up, so I’ve decided to just make it the Saturday Summary. Since I’m having problems every week fitting it in, and Saturday is always my internet day, this will allow me to get it done on time!
So, see you Saturday!
Last night at the store, Shana Lee gave a mediumship demonstration… her first outside of school/teaching environment….and it was a great success. The group in attendence was small, and made up mostly of her friends, family and students, but that made it a more comfortable environment for her first ‘official’ demonstration.
Shana’s mother, Joan, opened the evening with a prayer thanking the Divine Spirit and asking for blessing. The intent was also set for loved ones of those in attendence to come through with their messages. And they did. Shana was able to receive something for everyone.
Overall it was a great evening, and I hope we’ll be able to do more in the fall!
Well I missed the Wednesday Wrap-up, so this week I’ll do a Saturday Summary instead 
I hear from a lot of my customers that they consider themselves ’spiritual, but not religous’. I too feel that way. As such I found this article from the United Church Observer of interest.
And continuing on that theme, this week I found a website devoted to the ‘SBNR’ concept….SBNR.org. They’re fairly new, but there are some interesting articles already posted including one called Spirituality and Warfare which I found quite thought-provoking.
Did you hear about the psychic experiment on Twitter this past week? Richard Wiseman went to different locations to test remote viewing and had people send twitters to him as to their impressions. He explains here what the plan was. Final results will be up on his site on Thursday.
And finally, if you’re looking for some ideas for your summer travel plans, check out the Pagan Travel Examiner for unique and meaningful places to visit.
Have a great week!
Shelley
I’ve got nothing this week! I don’t know if it was because of both Canadians & Americans having a long weekend one weekend apart, and thus the interweebs were quiet or because I’ve been too busy to do my usual amount of browsing, but I just didn’t find anything much to pass on.
About the only thing of interest I found was that the tv show, Medium, was cancelled by NBC but then picked up by CBS so will be back in the fall.
Until next time……
It seems everyone is at the beach or the park….they’re sure not here at the store! So I’ve been playing around on the internet. Here are some fun things to do when you have a few minutes to spare:
Find out what kind of man/woman you are. I’m a Renaissance Faire Wench (Quirky liberal alpha female). There’s a bunch of other fun quizzes here as well.
Ever wonder what you’d look like as a plastic lego person? Find out at Mini-Mizer. I made one to look like the QLAF from above….but can’t seem to save it in a format I can post! So you’ll have to use your imagination on that one.
Every wondered what your fairy name is. Mine is:
Okay, so it’s actually Thursday, it’s still the weekly wrap-up of my internet browsings….just a day late in posting.
Fans of What the Bleep may enjoy this blog entry from Paranormalia on the brain, consciousness, neuroscience & quantum physics.
Patheos.com has just added a Pagan Gateway, and the New Age one is ‘coming soon’. I haven’t explored enough yet to know how accurate their claim of being the “premier online destination to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality and to explore and experience the world’s beliefs” is, but from what I’ve seen they have some good material.
SCEPCOP - Scientific Committee to Expose Pseudo-Skeptical Cynicism of the Paranormal - is a website that debunks debunkers. I’ll be following this one closely as I get so fed up with closed-minded skeptics…those people who aren’t even open to the possibility that things paranormal might be true; that psychic abilites etc may be things we just don’t have the ability to ‘measure’ and study yet. True-skeptics I have no problem with, as I feel I am one myself - open to learning and possibilities outside my range of experience; and ‘who is looking or inquiring for what is true’.
Did you know that there is a World Tarot Day? I didn’t! It’s on May 25. You can learn more about it at their website. Now that I do know, I’ll have to plan for something at the store next year.
Here’s what I found of interest this week:
Canada’s National Pagaon Conference is happening this weekend out at UBC. Go here for information on what they’ll be up to.
Pet psychics are making the news here and here.
Blogger, Michael Prescott asks the question does our personality survive after death? And if it does, does it matter? He continues the discussion here, with a summary of the comments that arose from the first post. Intersting discussion.
One of the more frequent questions I get asked, especially when my stock is low, as it is right now, is if I am closing. The short answer is - no, I’m just broke.
The long answer as to why my stock is so low right now is that in preparation for my planned rennovations, when I was going to have to compact the book shelves, I reduced the amount of restocking I was doing. And then this slow sales period hit, and I decided to not do the renovations. But the slow sales also meant I didn’t have the money to increase my stock again.
As reported earlier this week, Grimoire’s Books in New West is the latest independent retailer that I’ve heard is closing their doors. In a blog post about it, the owner, Pixie, says “I feel as if I’ve been climbing Everest with a yeti on my back for two years, and am now one pooped Pixie!” I know exactly how she feels…I’ve been doing that climb for 5 1/2 years now!
Last summer, when I re-signed for another 5 year lease, I thought I’d at least been able to put the yeti down though. Business, while not booming exactly, was continuing to grow steadily and was pretty much breaking even every month. Then things shifted. The fall saw a steady decline in sales, readings & workshop attendance. The weather in December did not help in the least either. Up until this year, I’ve been able to count on the fall sales to not only pay for the stock brought in for those months, but to also allow me to bring in new stock through the slower months of February & March (January is actually a good month for me!).
But fall sales weren’t enough to even pay the incoming bills this year, so that doesn’t leave much for ordering new items. In years past I was able to dip into my personal savings to cover any short falls….but after 5+ years of dipping and not receiving any income from the store to replenish them, there are no savings left.
So, no, I’m not closing….just going through a rough patch. I really hope that things continue to pick up as they have this month, because I don’t want to close, but if this rough patch doesn’t give way to greener grass, I may have to look at the possibility.
Here is the first of a new weekly feature of this blog. In the Wednesday Wrap-up I’ll highlight some links to articles, discussions and/or news that I found interesting over the past week or so. So here we go…..I don’t have too many this week, as I only started ‘collecting’ on Friday.
First up, an entry on waiting from author Lynn Viehl. I loved her comments on the reactions she gets for not moving line-ups….I’ve had those myself!
Here’s an interesting tarot spread that I’ll be trying out.
Shana Lee, a reader that works out of the store, blogs about her recent trip to England and the Arthur Findlay College.
It’s election time in BC, and I feel it’s important for everybody to vote! For times of All Candidates Meetings in the Tri-Cities check out V3H.com. Elections BC is where to find out how, where and what we’re voting on (ie referendums).
It’s also time for everybody to support their local, independent retailers, before they’re all gone. It’s been tough for everybody these past few months, and every week I’m hearing about more and more small businesses closing….Kokum’s Den (previously Peaceful Insights) in Maple Ridge, Phoenix Books in Surrey, and now the latest is Grimoire’s Books in New West. I’ll be writing more on this topic later this week.
And that’s it for now….until next time,
Shelley
I’ve changed the blog back to the old look, but incorporated it within the site this time. I just found that I liked WordPress better than the software provided by my web hosting service.
I’ve also been doing some thinking on how exactly to use the blog, which is why there haven’t been any new postings. I didn’t want it to be just a ‘commercial’ for new products, books, or events as so many retail blogs are. (I will be discussing such things but not just them. ) I also didn’t want it to just be my random thoughts of the day (as it was turning into). So I took a look at all the blogs I read on a regular basis to determine what it is I like about them, which is:
So, starting in May the blog will take on a more structured format with regular features such as
I hope you will enjoy the changes! Until next time…….
Shelley