Sometimes you find the message of Demeter in the most unexpected places. Sometimes you find the magical in the mundane and are forever reassured of your own path without delving into a magical text.

Life is Magical

Here I was a week ago, in between books with my local book club and at a loss of what to go to next. I devour audio books at work and while driving and go between Audible and Overdrive which delivers my local library systems audiobooks to me via a mobile device application. There plastered on the front page of my Overdrive was a book for the 'Big Library Read'. What on earth is that, I wondered. Turns out, it is a program that networks libraries together on a global scale and offers a book without hold times so everyone can access it and discuss it around the world. How nifty I thought.

So, without expecting much other than mild amusement I clicked checkout and downloaded my copy of "Flat Broke with Two Goats" by Jennifer McGaha. With a narration from an older lady with a slight southern accent I was taken into this woman's life.

You start out somewhere in this woman's middle years living in a comfortable home in North Carolina working part time as a teacher and with her husband's job and can afford to send her three children to private school and buy a new house from friends. This is, of course, right before the economy crashed.

Through excellent writing the author weaves the current events of her life with past influences and reveals eventual truths she discovers about herself and her motivations.

There are no magic wands, no dragons, no ghosts or 'evil' in this book.

There are however; bill collectors, tax debts, paycheck garnishments, bank account leans and foreclosure. It is a reality that more and more of Americans face.

In the words written by Jennifer you get to see a change of lifestyle from upper middle class to that of the perpetually low-income homesteader. Hers was a decision made from desperation, yet it is ultimately a decision that saved her life, her marriage, her sense of self and her connection to her own ancestors.

Demeter says we need to plant the land ourselves.

This woman makes no mention of pagan leanings in her ideology. To my knowledge she has never been to Eleusis, but nevertheless, she has heard the call of the Earth. The urge to reconnect with her present reality instead of rushing to and from the hectic beat of modern life as we know it. Perhaps oblivious to the urges of the Goddess this woman nevertheless walks the path we all could walk a little closer too. I had no intention to have a big spiritual revelation so soon after coming home from Spring Mysteries. I had no intention of seeing into what could have been my own past, hearing the words of ancestors who lived in Appalachia generations before. I had no intention of finding some of the most profound spiritual messages I have heard...in a mundane autobiographical book of a normal woman.

In every breath there is magic.

I hope that you have a chance to read this, and comment on your revelations. I didn't want to give too much away in this article, but I urge you all to hear the words of Demeter, even in the most unlikely places.