Happy, happy, happy!!

I am so...yep, happy! Today has been a great day for me :) I had three new friends and their babies round for lunch and it was fab :) It's so lovely to finally meet some people in real life who share similar outlooks and ideals! Lunch was nice, although I don't think I made enough, and just chatting was great. We talked about meeting up in Totnes and about having a crafting day - I can't wait!!

Other small things which have made this day brilliant:

1) I phoned the solicitor and discovered that it won't cost us a penny to have a parental responsibility agreement made out, so Phil can legally be Chloe's Daddy (she's desperate for him to adopt her officially but this isn't possible at this stage :( )

2) I paid our council tax and discovered that's it until April so we can pay off Phil's credit card next month!!

3) One of the friends who came has asked for volunteers to be photographed for her husband's business portfolio and I volunteered (jumped in a bit too quickly, I suspect - lol) because we have hardly any photos of Finn and would *love* some pics of all of us together. I will, of course, pay him for anything he gives us, but it'll be masses cheaper than other options!

And another thing happened too, perhaps the biggest thing of all. I was going to post about this the other day but didn't get around to it and now I can see why as it feels like I've spent years looking into this and today might have made a little progress! I've been on a spiritual/religious/discovery journey on and off for my whole life. I used to dabble with the Bible, occasionally going to a very traditional church and a very active Christian Union ebating group and the church that most of my friends attended, which was Baptist. It never sat right with me and I felt very out of place, and began looking into Buddhism, which I have a great deal of time for and intend to carry on thinking about. Only a couple of months ago I 'discovered' Quakerism and have been reading up about it, going round in the same old circles and feeling it doesn't quite fit. Just this week, chatting with my mum, I began to take on board some of the things I've read about naturalistic Paganism - which I didn't know existed, as I only knew about Wiccan Paganism, and somehow I missed a lot of information along the way!! I've been reading up about it, one of my friends today mentioned that it's quite close to what she believes, and I've just read this online:

Paganism is a positive and life affirming nature based spiritual path with leaders not rulers, teachers not gurus or masters and teachings not dogma. Pagan isn't something into which you convert or change. Being Pagan is awakening to who and what you are as a natural being, a child of Mother Nature. Old-timers used to call the process of awakening "coming home."

This has spoken to me more than anything else I've read in *years* and I'm finding that quite exciting! I really don't know why I'm feeling the need to define myself as something at the moment, I suppose I want that feeling of belonging, and to know that I'm not the only one thinking about these things. I think I may be discovering myself in terms of a pick-and-mix faith which embraces nature, buddhist ideas, pagan ideas and some ideas that have yet to be expressed. But this sentiment just makes so much sense, I'm definitely going to read further about naturalism.

A lovely, lovely day :)