This morning, I pulled the rune Kenaz.

The torch is known to every living man
by its pale, bright flame; it always burns
where princes sit within.

Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

A few hours later, as part of a daily practice forum I am a part of, I was invited to take a look at the Honor point on the Pentacle of Autonomy.  I Googled it to get some thoughts going, and in an article by Thorn Coyle read the following:

To live with honor is to shine with our own light, not needing to steal a lantern from anyone else.

Kenaz also relates to fire, to the hearthfire of the home.  Fire relating to energy.  Later in the article Thorn mentions how we can only live with honor when we are guided by long-term consequences rather than by short-term gain.  The battle over where I spend my energy and the long term consequences over the short term gain has been a big once for me lately. Over the past few years, I’ve been committed more and more to service in A.A., and I love doing it. It feeds my spirit. But I have to find time to feed my body, and my marriage, and my magical interests.  I’ve come up with a schedule that balances all of these, and my challenge to myself is to consider the long term consequences, stop being such a people-pleaser, and really try hard to tell people NO.  I am actively trying to be less flexible.  That seems backwards, but it is what I need right now!

I need to shine with my own light, and to do so, I need to take care of my physical and magical manifestation.  I woke up at 6:30 am this morning and fed my body with Rise & Shine yoga.  I sat in front of my altar last night and did energy work and fed my magic.  In this case there is long term and short term gain.  Win/Win.

I will keep shining this torch over the landscape and seeing what I come up with today.  It is gray and rainy out and my energy level is much lower than it was yesterday, when the sun shone brightly.