Pagan Blog Project - A is for Awkward

Welcome to my first post for the Pagan Blog Project, 2014. I'm very excited to get started. I may be five weeks behind but I should be caught up within a couple of weeks at the most. There have been so many wonderful blog posts on the first letter of the alphabet and I wanted to make mine a little bit special. I wanted to avoid going to the typical topics one might except, not that there is anything wrong with those people that chose to do so. I just wanted to get out of the gate and throw a curveball right from the start. Ha! Two sports metaphors in one sentence!

A is for Awkward.

awk·ward

  [awk-werd]  

adjective

1.

lacking skill or dexterity. Synonyms: clumsy, inept; unskillful,unhandy, inexpert. Antonyms: deft, adroit, skillful, dexterous;handy.

2.

lacking grace or ease in movement: an awkward gesture; anawkward dancer. Synonyms: uncoordinated, graceless, ungainly;gawky; maladroit; clumsy. Antonyms: graceful.

3.

lacking social graces or manners: a simple, awkward frontiersman.Synonyms: gauche, unpolished, unrefined; blundering, oafish;ill-mannered, unmannerly, ill-bred. Antonyms: gracious; polite,well-mannered, well-bred; smooth, polished, refined.

4.

not well planned or designed for easy or effective use: anawkward instrument; an awkward method. Synonyms: unwieldy,cumbersome, unmanageable; inconvenient, difficult,troublesome.

5.

requiring caution; somewhat hazardous: an awkward turn in theroad. Synonyms: dangerous, risky, unsafe, chancy; perilous,precarious, treacherous.

I can see the confusion on your faces. Okay, I can't really see your face, but I can imagine the look you're giving me. No, this post is not about language or the delicious study of words. We'll save that for the college educated and people with way more time on their hands. This post is about a person's first steps into The Craft.

We were all awkward (see definition number one) when we first came to Paganism. There were terms we didn't understand, confusion between the different pronunciations of athame (ATH-ah-may vs ah-THAY-me) depending on which side of the pond you're from, and even a few fears about summoning something we weren't able to handle. All of this is perfectly normal. Learning takes time and one of the ways we learn is through studying materials relevant to the subjects at hand.

There has been an unfortunate shift in the Pagan community as of late. It's not found everywhere but it is present, even among some of the people we view as leaders. I'm talking about the way we look at the newbies to the meetup events, or the open circles, or even the Pagan Youtube community. We forget that not everyone has all of the answers all at the same time. Some expect perfection as soon as someone reads their first book on one of the many Pagan paths. It is both unfair and unrealistic.

Instead of criticizing someone as not being a real witch or for mispronouncing Samhain as "sam-hane," let's embrace those that have a desire to learn. Some people are awkward at dancing but that doesn't make them any less of a dancer. The same can be said for acting since we can all name ten men and women that think they can act in television or movies but, in fact, cannot. This post is about bringing our community as a whole closer together.

Some people in our community wear faerie wings. Some wear bindis. Some wear mismatched socks and forget to pay attention to the people around us that we care for the most. Let's not shun the people who have come to our community to find the connections that they are seeking. How about we welcome them with open arms and have a little patience as they figure things out?

Learning doesn't happen overnight, nor does it happen from reading one book or one author. Learning happens at ALL times, through every interaction and every ritual performed. Awkwardness will come and go throughout the different stages of our lives. It's okay to be awkward at times. Embrace the newness and the mysterious. Move towards it with open arms and not with fear of outside judgement.