The Goddess and The Peach

Merry Meet and Greetings Family, Friends, Followers and Lurkers!

So, this past weekend saw some of the best weather we've seen since last October. On Friday afternoon, I made a run to the Garden Center and bought some beautiful pansies, as well as some Rosemary, Sage and Oregano for my herb garden. They were predicting that the beautiful weather would only last through the weekend and that Monday,once again, promised to be rainy and cold. This is truly the Winter without end!

I worked until well after sunset on Saturday cleaning out flower beds, potting plants and getting down and dirty with the Mother. Ahhhh, the smell of fresh turned Earth, the warm sun, and the breeze blowing through my hair, it was simply blissful. As is typical for me, I bought far more flowers than I could possibly plant in one day, so on Sunday morning, I awoke with a plan. I decided that the first order of business would be cutting up some vegetables, starting a fresh batch of "magick" pea soup, then spending the remainder of the day gardening.

Whenever I prepare vegetables, I always toss the leftovers outside for the squirrels and rabbits. I like to refer to this as "a gift for a gift". As I opened the door, a cool, gusty breeze blew in and I realized it was going to be quite a bit chillier than it had been the day before. Our cat, Peachy, agreed with my prediction and immediately huddled in her spot near the heating vent next to the kitchen door. "Cold, huh Peach?, I asked as she enjoyed the warmth. She had no comment.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and began slicing vegetables. Somewhere mid-onion, I felt a cold blast of air against my skin and turned to see that the wind had blown the kitchen door open. I walked over to shut it and immediately thought of Peachy. I looked down and she wasn't there. I didn't know how long the door had been open and a cold chill crept into the back of my mind. Perhaps she'd gotten out? Naaaah, I thought as I pulled the door closed. She was probably just on her favorite chair next to the fireplace. But she wasn't. Ok, I thought, "she's probably sunning herself on the windowsill". Nope, not there either.

Finally, I decided that she must be in her favorite crawl space in the basement ceiling. The crawl space is all of a foot and a half deep by about a foot wide. There is only one way in and out of it. Whenever we can't find her, this is usually where she is. To check if she's up there, however, is no easy task. Peachy is 16 years old and at this point, hard of hearing, so calling her by her name or in the typical "pssssssspssssspssss" manner one calls their cat is pointless. We have to physically climb into the utility sink, stand on tiptoe and peer in through a maze of crisscrossing pipes to find her. But, she wasn't there either and now I could feel a sickening panic rising in the pit of my stomach!

I yelled to the kids that I thought Peachy had gotten outside and we needed to look for her. We quickly mounted a neighborhood wide search. Justin looked under every car and bush. Kyla and I walked through all the backyards adjacent to ours. Peachy is all white, not to mention unusual looking, if she had gotten out, she couldn't have gotten that far without being noticed.

After about a half hour of looking with no sign of her, I began to suspect or perhaps hope, that she hadn't gotten out at all. Kyla and I returned to the house and searched every nook and cranny, while Justin scoured the neighborhood. I climbed up three more times to look in the crawl space, bruising my knees and banging my head in the process, thinking that perhaps I missed her.

There's a woodsy dirt road behind our house known as the "right of way". Kyla and I decided we should check one more time to see if she might be there. As we walked, I began whispering an invocation. "Are you praying, Kyla asked?" "Kind of, I said. I'm invoking the Goddess....Hecate". "Oh shit, Kyla responded".

Three hours of searching later, we returned home without Peachy. I tearfully called my husband, who was on a business trip, to tell him that Peachy was gone. His first question was, "did you look in the ceiling?" "Of course, I did! Three times and she's not there", I cried into the phone. I was baffled, I said. She couldn't possibly have been out that long, but she had completely...vanished! He tried his best to reassure me of her return but I was heartbroken.

Peachy is a Devon Rex, with very little fur to speak of. I thought about the "cold wind driven rain" they were predicting and imagined her alone, outside in the dark and I was terrified for her. I felt so helpless!

In what I believed was a futile act of desperation and for no other reason than my heart's refusal to accept that I may never see my little Peachy again, I went back down to the basement to look for her. I, once again, climbed onto the laundry basket, into the utility sink, hoping against hope that if I wished hard enough, when I looked again she would be there.

Through tears, I looked between the pipes into the crawl space. I'm not going to lie. With a scream loud enough to wake the dead, I yelled "Peach!!!! What the Fuck!!!! Peachy, who had obviously been peacefully napping, spun around a let out a startled meow.

I stood there, standing in the sink, staring into the ceiling in utter disbelief!! A sense relief, followed by overwhelming confusion began to set in.

Wait!! What just happened here?! It can't be possible! Three times, count em' three times, I looked there! She was NOT there!

I was snapped back to reality by Ray, whom I had forgotten was still on the phone, saying "you found her??!!

It took me a moment to collect my thoughts enough to answer, "Yes", I said. "I mean, No."

"I mean...I think I had help". "I'll explain later".

I hung up on Ray, went upstairs to my bedroom and lit the black devotional candles on my altar in honor of Hecate.

Word to the Mother!


In Darkness, Light!



Tracy