Merry Meet,

My name is Tracy nickname Gretchen Noel and I am a very spritual pagan. I am 37 years old and the daughter of a Southern Baptist Minister. I live in a different state and my parents, though they know I'm different, do not know of my spiritual beliefs. I have been kitchen/nature witch since I was 25 and do not follow any certain path in particular, but gather differnt things from all faiths and make them my own. I and my husband, for the most part, are solitary (he follows the budda yogi path) but we do have a small 'family' that gathers 8 times a year for holidays.

I think all of our prayers,energies and spells all go to the same place and that no one religion or denomination is the 'correct' one, just that it takes different things for different people and situations.

I am being banded on Tuesday Feb 27th and I am both excited and anxious. I was a size 12 in jr. high and a size 14-18 through high school. I went through a date rape situation when I was 19 and ballooned up to 240. I have been over 200 since I was 19, over 250 for about 12 yrs and over 300 for about 6 years.

I 1st attempted to have this very procedure four years ago but I had health spring and was denied without any hope of an appeal. Last year my company started offering BCBS along with health spring. I didn't change anything, then I found out last fall that there were 6 other people in the company that had switched to BCBS and sucessfully had the procedure SO, I switched this year and as you will see in my signature.. was approved!:clap2:

I am so excited about what lays ahead for myself and my husband. I LOVE to be outdoors and being my size is REALLY a hinderance.

I look forward to hearing from others of alternative faiths or, No faith in particular.

I have created a poll, thought it would be fun. I know there is NO WAY I have remembered all of the different paths so if yours isn't listed..VERY SORRY. Example.. right after I created the poll, I realised I left of NORSE. ANYwho, I'll add it if you ask me to assuming I can figure out how to make changes to the poll. I'm kind of technically challenged.

Blessed Be,

Tracy/Gretchen Noel

Hi!

So I added a signature line about the Flying Spaghetti Monster to my post to kind of counter those religious signatures, and people don't even get that it's a spoof!

I've sooo heard of the flying spaghetti monster! I can't remember where though?

I think today is going to be my worst day. What is it now.. technically my 2nd day post? surgery was Tuesday. ANywho.. I woke up feeling like a pack of wild monkeys was partying in my abdomen all night. The part up by my ribcage/diaphram where the ports located is hard and swollen and all my other places I didn't feel before are starting to protest. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better.. I'm having a few minor gas pains for the 1st time today too. It's v. uncomfy to breath deep at all and I lose my breath v. easily. Also, is it v. uncomfortable for y'all when your stomach starts growling? It almost hurts...

I'm feeling your pain - but you are right, it really does get better. I think day two was pretty bad for me too cuz it was a travel day and major major gas - i was hunched over walking around a small terminal in the airport looking im sure deranged! The port site pain and gas can be bad but hang in there - it will ease up. Hopefully you don't have to work soon and can move around, rest, repeat. Try to keep yourself busy to get your mind off things = also, my partner rubbed, patted, massaged my back/shoulder where I felt the gas trapped and I burped and passed gas like crazy and it felt great - maybe you have a good friend to help you with that - smile!!

take care!!!

Not only will you feel good again, soon you will feel wonderful! Someone asked me how was my first year and I told them it was a lot of fun! Watching the pile of clothes on the closet floor grow ( and the ones hanging get less and less!) Getting compliments on how well I am doing- even when I think I am not doing well at all, the ability to WALK! and excersise and climb the stairs.......

On another note, I was interested to see just how many people were in this thread. On this subject i am a newbie but would like to learn. I tend to feel more comfy with the general group pagan but was surprised with all the different options in your poll. Any suggestions to start my learning?

I am not a group person - spend my day as customer service and off time with

just family. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

What a great thread!! Thanks for starting it and congrats on your surgery! I'm waiting for approval...

Not only will you feel good again, soon you will feel wonderful! Someone asked me how was my first year and I told them it was a lot of fun! Watching the pile of clothes on the closet floor grow ( and the ones hanging get less and less!) Getting compliments on how well I am doing- even when I think I am not doing well at all, the ability to WALK! and excersise and climb the stairs.......

On another note, I was interested to see just how many people were in this thread. On this subject i am a newbie but would like to learn. I tend to feel more comfy with the general group pagan but was surprised with all the different options in your poll. Any suggestions to start my learning?

I am not a group person - spend my day as customer service and off time with

just family. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My advice to you is read any and everything you can get your hands on! READ READ READ. There's a lot of great info and you will probably, like most of us take things from several books,authors and paths and make it your own. I have TONS of fav authors but the ones that got me started on this path were Cunningham, morrison and belive it or not.. a book by the name of Celestine Prophesy. That little book 'o fiction changed my life and how I viewed things.

Have fun with your discoveries!

T

I think the classic book on wicca is Drawing down the Moon by Adler-- at least it is for me. There are so many books!

For a general introduction to Paganism I recommend the Idiot's Guide to Pagansim. I also am found of Pennick's Pagan book of Days. I find the Dummies Guide and Idiots Guide to books to be good resources overall-- they are simple to read and easy to use and present a lot of good information.

The internet also has a lot of information that can be really useful-- things like what is the difference between druidism and wicca and between different traditions and so forth. Sometimes I feel like reading about the different traditions and where they came from is like reading about the pedigrees at a dog show-- there can be a lot of simularity and the main differences can just be one or two things that might not seem so big to someone like me, but I'm sure its a big difference to those who follow those traditions.

If you want to know more about books and exact titles or something you can always PM me. Library catalogs have three access points- title, author, and subject. Wheras if you type something into Amazon it doesn't need to be as accurate in order to get the result- plus a zillion others.

Hi, all! You have no idea how refreshing it is to see this post! I generally spend most of my time over in the Rants and Raves forum, going head to head with some of the fundamentalist Christians. It's nice to have our own thread. I'm an atheist, by the way. I went to church every Sunday until I was 18, but what they were teaching never seemed right to me. I guess I like to ask "Why?" and "How?" too much and I am too analytical for religion as a whole.

Hi, all! You have no idea how refreshing it is to see this post! I generally spend most of my time over in the Rants and Raves forum, going head to head with some of the fundamentalist Christians. It's nice to have our own thread. I'm an atheist, by the way. I went to church every Sunday until I was 18, but what they were teaching never seemed right to me. I guess I like to ask "Why?" and "How?" too much and I am too analytical for religion as a whole.

Welcome to our thread!

T

I'm sitting here laughing. I just put a post on the thread that I believe laurend is refering to that that thread was making us Christians look bad and had mentioned how welcoming and friendly it is on this thread. I guess being a Christian and being open minded is a real no-no to some people. Well, I guess I can live with that.

I'm thinking about changing my signature to, "Born OK the first time!" What do you think?

I guess being a Christian and being open minded is a real no-no

Will you marry me? Well, except for the whole I'm already married thing. AndI guess it would have to be, "Will you civil union me?"

Hi, most people here at LBT call me TOM and I am a Christian, but not the kind that you have to worry about.

I hope that no one minds, but I will be reading a lot, and saying very little.

I have an old saying: "You can't learn with your mouth open" or more fittingly for a PC forum, "You can't learn with your fingers moving (on the keyboard).

I'll pretend to be a sponge and I hope you can bath me in knowledge and opinion.

Hi, most people here at LBT call me TOM and I am a Christian, but not the kind that you have to worry about.

I hope that no one minds, but I will be reading a lot, and saying very little.

I have an old saying: "You can't learn with your mouth open" or more fittingly for a PC forum, "You can't learn with your fingers moving (on the keyboard).

I'll pretend to be a sponge and I hope you can bath me in knowledge and opinion.

Everyone is welcome to this thread as long as they bring an open mind with them and they don't want to challenge or debate about the great muffin in the sky or lack there of. A new thread can be started for that debate. Some of my closest friends are christian... and know all about me and we get along great.. we just don't discuss politics or religion! As I said before, I feel ALL paths, be they chrisitian, pagan or NO path at all are valid in my eyes.. different strokes for different folks.

Y'all come back now ya hear!

Tracy

I'm thinking about changing my signature to, "Born OK the first time!" What do you think?

How about "Recovering Baptist" for me???