Brighid's Reveal

To open, some background on my namesake Goddess:

Brighid is a Celtic triple goddess ruling healing, poetry, and smithcraft. She is one of the great mothers of the Celts. Her modern name is Brigit or Bridget as derived from her Christianization into St. Bridget. Her name, Brighid, thought to be derived from Bhrati in Sanskrit, is originally an epithet meaning "exalted one".

Brighid is best known for her associations with healing, poetry, and smithcraft. As a healing goddess, she governs childbirth and the birthing time. Brighid was highly regarded as a healing goddess as can be seen from the numerous healing wells dedicated to her all over Ireland. As a goddess of poetry, she governs not only the inspiration and writing of poetry, but also divination and prophecy. As a goddess of smithcraft, she governs the forge's fire. It is for these reasons that she is considered the "Bright Goddess" and is associated with the element of fire. In all her forms, she brings to one inspiration (a fire quality) and provides the spark for motivation. Her fire associations are so strong that a perpetual fire was set at Kildare in her honor. The fire still burns there today. She also became the goddess of the hearth-fire, the fire of the home, since she contains the mother and fire aspects.

I chose Brighid because of her aspects of motherhood (especially giving birth), her connections to the hearth and home, and poetry as divination.

Now, some things you should know about me: I moved out my parent’s house at 18, was pregnant, married and gave birth at 19 (yes, in that order), dropped out of a state school after two quarters because I got pregnant. I proceeded to go back to college part-time at twenty-two, got my A.A. at twenty-five, my B.A. at twenty-eight and my MFA at thirty…so, essentially I have been in school, minus 2.5 years, since I was in Kindergarten. My divorce to said husband was final last month.

I have been on cash assistance, food assistance, medical assistance, WIC and SNAP at different points in my life. I am pretty liberal in my political stances. I feel the government cannot leave the poor behind, especially the poor who are mentally-ill. Mental healthcare in this country is a huge problem that contributes to homelessness and poverty, but more on that another day. To be brief: I feel that those who are fortunate to make a lot of money should help those less fortunate and that those who are less fortunate should use the services they have and make the most of them so they can get ahead.

I have been a stay-at-home mom (while going to college) and am now a working mom. The stay-at-home mom was the model I had growing up. So charting the waters of working and raising my son is very new to me. I always felt that what I did in the home was indeed work. The best example was thinking of what my then-husband would have to do to replace me if I died: hire a maid, cook, driver, babysitter and personal accountant. I feel all moms are working moms.

In the writing world, I am a poet. I feel my poems border on the metaphorical and rely heavily on metaphors grounded in the relationships between human beings and between human beings and the natural world. I adore the poetry of Michael Heffernan, Laura Kasischke and Sylvia Plath, to name a few.

To pay the bills, I teach on the college-level and do some marketing for a small nonprofit.

My child is the most important part of my life. I plan to have more children in the future, with or without a man by my side.

So, to put it mildly, I love education, being a mother and writing. I love my fellow blog goddesses and am honored to have been asked to be a part of it. Alala!!