More Pride, More Prejudice Yesterday was the Boone Highcountry Pagan Pride Day. It was held at Appalachain State University (for my Canadian readers, that is pronounced “appa-laa-chin” down here in the south) in Boone, outdoors at the Duckpond Field.

It was a lovely day, sunny, and not too hot, and sometimes breezy. It did start to cloud over later in the day, as Hurricane Rita gets closer to us, but she still has not reached this far in-land. Our thoughts and prayers and energies were sent to our fellows in Texas and Louisiana who had to cancel their PPDs yesterday because of the storm. Hopefully they will all be home soon and able to reschedule.

Thankfully James was able to take the day off work and attend the festivities with me. Its not a normal thing for him to get a Saturday off, and I was grateful that he was able to do this, and to share the day with me. I’m so used to standing in circle wishing that he was there, that being able to share the experience was almost strange. I wish we could do it more often.

I found a necklace to match a pair of dagger earrings that I’ve had for years, which I coincidently was wearing yesterday, and we found James a really nice tiger-eye stone necklace as well. We stocked up on some incense and got T-Shirts to remember the day. Oh, and I won one of the raffle draws, and got a really nice 8x10 print that I will be able to hang on the wall over my altar.

I missed not being able to go to Toronto PPD, I miss my friends and family there, and I miss the FEAST that is seemingly always part of being Pagan in Toronto! I have suggested it to the organizers here for next year’s Boone PPD. I guess there’s not many Celts around here ;-) Who knows, maybe I’ll even jump in and help out next year, if we’re still living in the highcountry.

We finished off the day with a wonderful (Wiccan) ritual and spiral dance. We had some spectators of course, being on campus and close to residences. There was also a guy who kept driving by in his pick-up truck yelling things like “Spread the Blood of Satan” that caused a few giggles, but he stopped when one of our members walked out to the street with his camera and snapped a pic. LOL! There were others who yelled some things that were unintelligible, but for the most part we were left alone. Some folks who wandered by came to say hello, and some just kept walking and wondering what the heck we were doing there.

Here’s to another year of Pagan Pride. May those who are able come out of the closet, and those who aren’t, keep their faith.  ¶ 12:37 PM