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Today was Aidan's first trip to a classmate's birthday party. It was nice. He had a lot of fun. It started late, so when we returned at four the cake hadn't been cut yet. mechanchaos and I stuck around at that point and climbed out of our snail shells long enough to talk with other parents. It was a very positive experience, since I can be so shy among people I'm not familiar with. It was nice just to sit back and watch Aidan relax with the other kids. Sometimes his age shows, sometimes it doesn't. But when the topic came up in conversation the other adults seemed cool with it.

My visit to Obatala and Shango with dawnstar last month sparked a bit of a sidebar in my American Religious History course. I started reading about Voudou, Santeria, and Palo Mayombe. Though there are some aspects of these paths that I do not personally espouse, it is an interesting journey into cultures that were not familiar to me as I grew up.

It occurred to me: reading books, listening to music, these things do not give the whole picture. If I really want to explore all these paths that I'm reading about, I should seek out people, practitioners. The reality of the stuff isn't in an author's thesis. It's in the vitality of living beings, people just like you and me (aside for some variance in spiritual approach and cultural background). Now to get off my butt and try to shove my shyness in a shoebox and start talking to more Buddhists, Shaivites, Babalawos, etc.