Return to the Centre

One of the things I did in my misspent youth was to be a Benedictine novice - one of many experiences which forced me to recognise that the empirical evidence in front of your eyes can't be beaten by others' imaginings. What I was seeking in my monastic life was much like what I have gained as a witch. The word monk comes from the Greek monos meaning alone,  and of course this has the same resonance for us as the language of the solitary witch,  who never is really solitary.
In witchcraft we also talk of grounding and centering - reconnecting to the earth and ones own energy. This is again almost exactly paralleled in much monastic language of the one thing necessary, a single eye, and so on.
I had a week of annual leave last week and while I did a little spring cleaning I mainly spent it returning to myself.
I feel this apparently simple act is one of the most radical things about the modern witchcraft movement,  and in fact the monastic movement has always been a source of radical action and in fact lunacy (what holds it back in the Christian tradition is its import from other religions in the fourth century after Christianity became the state religion, as a means of a 'career in the church '. Up till then the height of Christian achievement was being martyred). The source of this power in monasticism is the same as the source of the power of the witch to be a scandal to the world, the concentration on what is necessary. I see echoes of this idea even in Crowley's idea of will.
I returned to work today re-energised, to find a summons to a meeting with Zippy (my 'manager')'s manager to give me feedback on the outcome of the recent enquiry at which I was a witness. I have replied that since I haven’t so much as had a statement to sign yet and the whole thing wasn't desired or initiated by me, and Zippy has now given me what I wanted in the first place and the active sabotage of the team's work, seems to have stopped,  I'm happy and anyway don't feel it's really my business.
These people don't listen. And if they did they wouldn't have the nous to recognise what's going on in front of their eyes. She has no concept of the resources being a witch gives you, nor of what my next move will be. Is it any surprise, gentle reader, that I had a nap this afternoon and woke with a whole plan for different contingencies all worked out?