Momentous Days

Today was a particularly special day outside. For the first time since I've lived in this house (about 4 years) I saw an Indigo bunting, actually, 3 of 'em. This is the first time I've seen any in over 5 years. The first time I saw them was at my last home. I saw one visiting one of our bird feeders. That was a matter of a few days before I attended my first pagan camping festival. When I finally arrived at said camping and ritual site I saw two more Indigo buntings. And that was a very moving, inspiring and eventful weekend. It was my first pagan and ritual group experience; I picked Beltaine as the first holyday to celebrate. I gotta confess, it's pretty easy to have fun around fellow pagan’s way out in the sticks. That was a magical experience; everything about it is still fresh in my mind. It was a beautiful place down in extreme southwestern Missouri; the group that ran it has since dissolved, a sad thing. There were eagles nesting on top of cliffs, waterfalls, fields, woods, streams, a river and camping. And did I mention the ritual area? It was composed of huge stones dragged from the river way down at the bottom of the hill from the hilltop ritual space. It was gorgeous and had wonderful energy. I miss that place. It's funny how today's sighting of the Indigo buntings has preceded my possible excursion to another pagan camping festival, for Beltaine, of course.

I haven't firmly decided if I'm gonna attend a group thing or not, mostly because of the money issue and because none of my small local pagan group has committed to one. And I don't want to go alone as I'd need either someone else to drive or a navigator with me to keep me from getting lost; I'm not a good or confident driver; I'm very bad with directions. So, I'm hesitant about that but I also want to spend money on a new tattoo. I've said for a year that my next tattoo would be an Indigo bunting...then I started thinking about other ideas, like a goddess image or horned god ...but now that I've seen Indigo buntings today for the first time in years I'm wondering what it means. Does it mean I should go ahead with my pagan festival plans? Or does it mean I should go with my original idea for my next tattoo? I don't have the money for both. Any opinions? I've also failed in my search for folklore regarding my favorite of birds. Can anyone recommend a bird folklore site for North America? Also today in my neck of the woods: a rainbow! It's been rainy for the past several days and today we finally got a rainbow. Gorgeous!