Remember when we used to talk about the “new normal”? Was life post-coronavirus going to get back to normal, or were we going to have to cope with a new version of normality? I’m tired of waiting for anything resembling normalcy: let’s just call it what it is: The New Weird.
I always enjoyed the Weird Sisters from Macbeth, didn’t you? In high school, two fellow thespians and I performed a rap version of the whole “Double double, toil and trouble” bit. Yes, I rapped. Pretty dismally, admittedly, but it was not to be the last bit of hip hop that I’d write! (Or in the case of the Bard’s work, re-arrange, I reckon.) I just learned later in life to send the lyrics to someone who could actually perform them better than 99% Celtic me. (Don’t argue with me that House of Pain is Celtic AF, because Everlast is a phenom all his own. But I digress. As usual.)
Regardless, jump up, jump up, and get down, because I have taken my proclivity for journaling, AND teaching people to journal, AND weirdness, and put together the following:
The Kitchen Witch’s Guide to the New Weird: Practical life magic in the time of Covid-19 is the unexpected, unplanned, big and juicy follow up to My Life as a Kitchen Witch, yet another book I had not planned to write! If you enjoyed My Life, then you are going to love the BATWINGS out of this new book. It’s much longer, goes much deeper into herbs, emotional well-being, life during and post-pandemic, and there’s even a chapter on GHOSTS, because your girl Red absolutely has seen one.
Why write about ghosts, forest spirits, and what-not? WHY NOT? Let’s let all the weird, witchy goodness hang out, shall we? And because I really want this book to be as much about YOU as it is about me, there are writing prompts. Dozens of them. I will have you journaling your ever-living heart out, girlfriends! (And I use “girlfriends” here to include all friends, regardless of gender status.)
Did you know I used to teach journaling classes? They were super popular. The only reason I stopped was because it was wearing me out, and after all, I was still an introvert, mom of multiple young kiddos, and dealing with chronic illness, myself. But I really enjoyed those classes. My students called me their teacher, but I would insist I was only a guide, because journaling isn’t something you can teach. “What’s the first rule of journaling?” I would ask the class on the first day. They’d look at one another nervously, waiting for someone to take a stab. “There are NO RULES!” I’d announce, happily, and they’d all smile, some would laugh, and pretty much everyone would breathe a sigh of relief. We did whatever we wanted with our journals. Draw in them, make collages, write…one fellow would fill up an entire college composition book with “unsent letters” to his ex-wives from week to week! I think he went through at least nine comp books in one six week session! (I miss him–he was a great guy. And for the record, he did NOT send his exes those journals, in the end agreeing with me and the rest of the class that just writing out his feelings was the release he needed.)
I know from my own experience how therapeutic journaling can be. After hanging in limbo with the pandemic for months, I needed to take stock, myself. And so, the old journaling guide inside of me spoke up. “Write another Kitchen Witch book. Share this.”
I hope you enjoy it. In the paperback version, I left room after the journaling prompts for you to write your own responses, although if you are like the guy from class years ago, you might need more room than I left you!
The ebook is pretty, too.
Oh, and if you didn’t read the first book, My Life is on sale for $.99 at Amazon right now. Buy yourself both, maybe, and get ready for the New Weird.
Planet Tash 