A link and some life stuff

[flamingsword]

… does not include grief for a change!

A Guatemalan immigrant was resisting arrest when the cop assaulting him for it had a heart attack. The DA is still prosecuting him for aggravated manslaughter. For basically being there when it happened. Anyway, there’s a petition you can sign about it.

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So: news! I am leading an Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day/Candlemas ritual for the online coven on Friday, so 🍀 to all of us in re: that. Thus far, they’re all cool with my being secular about my paganism, and I’m hopeful about that continuing. I’m trying out ritual as a way to guide my brain into healthier channels, because I like making progress slowly over time, even if it does chafe to not be my final form already.

I attended the AO3 quarterly board meeting on Saturday, and the meeting ran well enough that I did not get overwhelmed (so props to the mods/BATs) even if it was frustratingly vague and not actually transparent which I thought was the whole point of having these meetings. runpunkrun has more to say about that over here.

It’s time to go back to the cardiologist and get my yearly EKG, and boy howdy am I glad that I only have to lay quietly and do nothing at all for five to ten minutes once a year. Bc let’s face it: that is still not one of my strong skills.

Comments

[conuly]

If you don't want to have a heart attack while assaulting somebody then maybe try some deep breathing exercises.

[flamingsword]

Deep breathing is a de-escalation tactic, which you can’t force cops to learn, according to America’s police unions. 🤷🙃😭

[conuly]

No shit, cops have actually been fired for deescalating rather than shooting people. (Well, at least one police officer has been fired for this, but still.)

[flamingsword]

One officer that we know of means probably a bunch more that we don’t know about. Also, I think the fact that she was suing them for discrimination might be the only reason I even heard about it.

[ex_flameandsong751]

Damn, I hate the police in this country.

I hope the ritual goes well. I'm glad they're not giving you grief about being a secular Pagan.

[flamingsword]

US cops have very punchable faces, true story. It’s really too bad that they seem to all be a bunch of murderous asshats.

And yeah, this coven being online and wildly eclectic are the only reasons I even considered joining. But so far so good! Plus we’re going to try to trade off who leads ritual every time just to make sure no one person is setting the tone and direction for everyone. No high priest/ess roles, just administrative roles based on skill sets. I’m looking forward to where this goes.

Maybe I should find some pagan icons. Or finally buy that image software I have been debating getting for like six months and make some, which is probably a better idea. 🧙

[sabotabby]

Congrats on leading the ritual, and good luck on the EKG.

[flamingsword]

Thanks for the luck! The EKG is mostly to make sure the meds I’m already on are continuing to work as expected.

I may use the offered luck for the impending something-will-go-wrong feeling I’m having about the ritual. I may need to talk through it a couple times aloud and make sure I have it. But if you have wished me luck then obviously nothing is allowed to go wrong. 😅

[genderjumper]

I'm a big fan of your heart, report back!

[flamingsword]

The doctors are just making sure my cardiac rhythms are not doing anything they aren’t supposed to, which is rare but is a risk with the dysautonomia. 🤷 But I have not been having any issues standing or light headed feelings, so I would have noticed if my heart were doing worrisome stuff. But I can check in with you tomorrow?

[genderjumper]

Thank you for the update today!!!