Sunday Gratitudes

A few things that are making me happy this week and that I’m grateful for:

White Night Melbourne

More than 100,000 people poured into Melbourne’s CBD last night for this uber cool all-night cultural party. It went from 7pm to 7am and included more than 80 events celebrating music, film, art, and light. Theo and I were conked out by about 10:30pm, old fogies that we are, but we enjoyed what we saw and I’ll have more on that including photos tomorrow.

Bikefest

Although I didn’t find what I was looking for in the way of cute bicycle accessories, Bikefest is still a pretty cool festival. I love that Melbourne has such a terrific bicycle culture that can even sustain an event like this. I love looking at people’s bikes and checking out their cycle style.

Cool Pagans

On my other blog, which is devoted to all things Pagan, I recently wrote about how difficult it’s been to meet normal Pagans, and I use the term “normal” loosely. It’s hard enough to make friends as an expat and it’s even harder when you’re looking into a tiny pool of people spread out in a country as large as Australia. I finally made it to a Pagan Meetup this week and was happy to meet some very nice and normal Pagans. There is hope after all.

Greater Pagan Recognition

The University of Missouri has added the eight Wiccan holidays to its Guide to Religions alongside holidays belonging to the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Shinto, Buddhist and Sikh faiths. It’s a wonderful display of inclusiveness and diversity and a big accomplishment for Pagans.

Cat paws in a fifteenth-century manuscript (photo taken at the Dubrovnik archives by @EmirOFilipovic)

Cat Paws

This is just a silly little thing that made me smile. Those of us with cats are familiar with that habit they have of walking across your keyboard while typing. Medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel tweeted a photo of cat-paws in a fifteenth-century manuscript. Turns out we are part of a long and glorious tradition.

What’s making you happy this week?