I’m leading a UU service on Kemeticism.

Hi, guys. Sorry I’ve been away – been doing things like having surgery on my driving foot, getting dumped off one of my meds, finding out we have a diabetic cat…It’s been a bit crazy. And because I thought I needed more crazy, I volunteered to lead a UU service on August 6th.

Why did I do this? Well, our interim minister is leaving after this weekend, and despite our best efforts, we don’t have anyone else to replace them yet. Therefore, we’ll need lay service leaders to fill in the gap. Plus, the Kemetic New Year is coming up, so I thought, hey, I could fill in and talk about the New Year. Two birds with one stone, right?

I am insane. Actually, certifiably insane.

To make matters even more interesting, while my podiatrist has technically cleared me to start driving again, I’m still working on the walking part. Right now, I’m still relying heavily on the scooter my husband bought me to get around the house, and I can’t actually load the thing into the car myself. Plus, there’s the issue that occasionally my driving is less than perfect and I will end up having to slam on the brakes, and I’m not really looking forward to the pain that that will probably produce. And since I’m out of practice driving by two months, I’m guessing that it’s a better than even chance that that situation will come up.

All of which is to say that I’m not even really sure I can make it to the church in three weeks. Plus, if I do end up having to stay home, the tech people at the church still have to run a test to confirm that they can remote me in under the new system that just got installed a few months ago (which relies on Vimeo instead of Zoom).

Yee ha.

But I think a friend of mine would say that “these are hurdles, not mountains.” It’s true that the backup plan at church is for me to switch Sundays with someone else, which would give me another week to recover. It’s just that I don’t do well with uncertainty, any more than I do with patience.

It’ll be okay. In any event, I doubt the world will come to an end.

As for Wep Ronpet (the Kemetic New Year), I’ll be personally celebrating it on August 7th. And I’m sticking in two extra Epagomenal Days because somewhere in the last two years, my calculations were off and I need to get myself back on track. (Serves me right for not always looking up the heliacal rising of Sirius on in-the-sky.org, I guess. Lesson learned.) Am I concerned about that part? Not really. The ancient Egyptians knew about leap years so they would occasionally insert a sixth Unyear day; it’s just that that didn’t become official practice until after the Romans came in. As for the seventh Unyear day, I don’t see it as that big a deal. (I need to get back on track somehow.) For the extra days, I was thinking of honoring Hathor and Sekhmet, who are both major presences in my life.

Also, I’ll be altering my procedure a bit. The rites I’ve been doing from The Twisted Rope have got me thinking that maybe it would be better to print out the image above, write the isfet on the image, and rip it up and flush it down the toilet like I do with their Execration Rites. You know, instead of deleting files, which I guess is kind of lame. Live and learn, right?

To other Kemetics, what are you doing to prepare for the New Year? Others, want to celebrate New Year’s in August? (It’s like Christmas in July without the sales. 🙂 ) Either way, hope you’re having a great summer (or winter, if you’re in that part of the world).

Take care.