TILT

Things I Learned Today

Index graphic
MoonLit Press is the creative collaboration of Terryl Warnock and Al Brown, longtime friends and business associates. Al is the computer sophisticate and art department, Terryl is the wordsmith. Our content is created by humans. We aspire to powerful creative nonfiction, beautifully presented. We aim to publish at new and full moons, but we flex with what inspires us.
New present for you

Here’s what's new

The latest post

abacus

The Exhausting Calculus of Harming None

Harm None is the commandment—the only ‘thou shalt’—contemporary pagans are required to keep. It seems a simple enough rule, but it’s not always easy to figure out what the path of least harm is in today’s vanishingly complex world.

  • A Plea for the Lives of Birds --- 2024-08-04
    The wild bird population in America today is half of what it was in the middle of the 21st century. Seventy-five percent of that tragic loss is directly attributable to domestic cats.
  • A Prayer for the Least Among Us --- 2024-07-21
    Ecosystems survive through the subtle interrelatedness between diverse species. Such relationships are better mediated by small players than by the blunt force trauma humans are wont to apply with our bulldozers. This is a prayer for those mistaken for unimportant.
  • Legacy of Waste --- 2024-06-05
    Our species is choking on its own waste. This essay asks people to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Our very survival depends on it.
  • Wolpe and the Pagans --- 2024-01-15
    The Atlantic magazine published a materially inaccurate and defamatory article by Rabbi David Wolpe in its December 2023 edition claiming that Donald Trump is pagan. This is one (real) pagan’s reply.
uncle wally

Saturday Morning Cartoons

A series of essays primarily for fun, some of which have a moral to the story.

stone hendge

The Sacred Circle: Building Community

Healthy and sustainable human communities are much like healthy, sustainable ecosystems. They are characterized by interrelatedness, a web of subtle relationships and mutual dependencies that are essential and far-reaching.

professor

Continuing Education

Not all of life’s teachers are to be found working in schools. Here at MoonLit we have noticed that life is an opportunity to learn and grow, start to finish, and that not all tuition is collected by a registrar’s office. The universe will obligingly continue to turn the volume up until the student either gets it and graduates, or fails and has to repeat the class.

  • Expensive Tuition --- 2024-11-01
    A visit by a kindly ghost allows a middle-aged woman to learn the value of listening to the wisdom offered by parents—at last.
  • Miscellaneous Treasures and Other Junk --- 2024-06-18
    What really matters in a human lifetime are relationships, and magical encounters with the beauty and majesty of the Sacred that take our breath away. Our author was slow to grasp this and burdened herself with miscellaneous treasures and other junk.
  • Stepping Stones on the Road to Barbarism --- 2024-08-18
    Aging, gracefully or otherwise, can involve an increase in the number of sick days which, in turn, can wear the civilized veneer off a person.
black cat

Familiars

Terryl is an animist pagan (a contemporary witch) living in a living world, cohabitating peacefully with people of all species, in a community of the human and nonhuman. Her familiars are her teachers, her allies, her sanctuary, her helpmeets, and her friends. The connections are deep and meaningful. Familiars abound in the whole of the nonhuman world. Landscapes, weather, seasons, zenith, nadir, and the cardinal directions. Ask of the wind and the sunflower, what is it like to be you? Listen carefully—feel deeply—for the answer. Ask winter what the spring feels like.

wheel of the year

A Pagan Celebration of the Spiral of the Year

Because we live our lives from beginning to middle to end we are tempted to think of time as linear. But time is a circle, a spiral of creation and destruction, of death and reincarnation, of birth and rebirth. These pieces celebrate that spiral and the renewal, the rejuvenation, to be found therein.

  • Blush --- 2024-05-01
    A celebration of life’s reawakening, its resurrection, in spring.
  • Lughnasadh --- 2024-08-04
seasonal cards

Holiday Greeting Cards

A collection of sentimental greeting cards from the spiral of the year, from our hearts to yours.

pen and quill

Words Matter

“Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.” The origin of this cautionary wisdom is lost to antiquity. These words have always been true and pertinent. Although the internet has placed an artificial degree of separation between the words we write or say and their consequences, words have tremendous power. They manifest reality. It is important to be careful and kind with them

shooting star

Guest Stars

**Open Call for Submissions** MoonLit Press was founded, in part, on a wish to be of service to the writing community. We know better than most how hard it is to get published, so we offer to share our space here with other writers here. Send us your best stuff and we will start the editorial review process. We will require a first serial copyright, but your work is yours to publish whenever and wherever else you choose to, with attribution to MoonLit Press.


Terryl Warnock is an eccentric with a happy heart who lives on the outskirts of town with her cat. She is known as an essayist, proof reader, editor, maker of soap, and proud pagan. A lifetime student, she has pursued science, religion, and sustainable communities. This, plus life experience from the local community service to ski instructor, from forest service worker to DMV supervisor, from hospitality to business owner gives her a broad view on the world.

Terryl is the author of:
The Miracle du jour, ISBN-10: 0989469859, ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0-9894698-5-2

AJ Brown, in a past life, was an embedded systems engineer (digital design engineer). He worked on new product designs from hard disk controllers, communication protocols, and link encryptors to battery monitors for electric cars.

A few years ago he surrendered his spot on the freeway to someone else. Now he is more interested in sailing, building out his live-in bus for travel, and supporting the idea of full-circle food: the propagation, growth, harvest, storage, preparation, and preservation of healthy sustenance. He is a strong supporter of Free/Libre Open Source Software[F/LOSS] and is willing to help most anyone in their quest to use it.

Together, we are MoonLit Press.

Index graphic
MoonLit Press is the creative collaboration of Terryl Warnock and Al Brown, longtime friends and business associates. Al is the computer sophisticate and art department, Terryl is the wordsmith. Our content is created by humans. We aspire to powerful creative nonfiction, beautifully presented. We aim to publish at new and full moons, but we flex with what inspires us.
New present for you

Here’s what's new

The latest post

abacus

The Exhausting Calculus of Harming None

Harm None is the commandment—the only ‘thou shalt’—contemporary pagans are required to keep. It seems a simple enough rule, but it’s not always easy to figure out what the path of least harm is in today’s vanishingly complex world.

  • A Plea for the Lives of Birds --- 2024-08-04
    The wild bird population in America today is half of what it was in the middle of the 21st century. Seventy-five percent of that tragic loss is directly attributable to domestic cats.
  • A Prayer for the Least Among Us --- 2024-07-21
    Ecosystems survive through the subtle interrelatedness between diverse species. Such relationships are better mediated by small players than by the blunt force trauma humans are wont to apply with our bulldozers. This is a prayer for those mistaken for unimportant.
  • Legacy of Waste --- 2024-06-05
    Our species is choking on its own waste. This essay asks people to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Our very survival depends on it.
  • Wolpe and the Pagans --- 2024-01-15
    The Atlantic magazine published a materially inaccurate and defamatory article by Rabbi David Wolpe in its December 2023 edition claiming that Donald Trump is pagan. This is one (real) pagan’s reply.
uncle wally

Saturday Morning Cartoons

A series of essays primarily for fun, some of which have a moral to the story.

stone hendge

The Sacred Circle: Building Community

Healthy and sustainable human communities are much like healthy, sustainable ecosystems. They are characterized by interrelatedness, a web of subtle relationships and mutual dependencies that are essential and far-reaching.

professor

Continuing Education

Not all of life’s teachers are to be found working in schools. Here at MoonLit we have noticed that life is an opportunity to learn and grow, start to finish, and that not all tuition is collected by a registrar’s office. The universe will obligingly continue to turn the volume up until the student either gets it and graduates, or fails and has to repeat the class.

  • Expensive Tuition --- 2024-11-01
    A visit by a kindly ghost allows a middle-aged woman to learn the value of listening to the wisdom offered by parents—at last.
  • Miscellaneous Treasures and Other Junk --- 2024-06-18
    What really matters in a human lifetime are relationships, and magical encounters with the beauty and majesty of the Sacred that take our breath away. Our author was slow to grasp this and burdened herself with miscellaneous treasures and other junk.
  • Stepping Stones on the Road to Barbarism --- 2024-08-18
    Aging, gracefully or otherwise, can involve an increase in the number of sick days which, in turn, can wear the civilized veneer off a person.
black cat

Familiars

Terryl is an animist pagan (a contemporary witch) living in a living world, cohabitating peacefully with people of all species, in a community of the human and nonhuman. Her familiars are her teachers, her allies, her sanctuary, her helpmeets, and her friends. The connections are deep and meaningful. Familiars abound in the whole of the nonhuman world. Landscapes, weather, seasons, zenith, nadir, and the cardinal directions. Ask of the wind and the sunflower, what is it like to be you? Listen carefully—feel deeply—for the answer. Ask winter what the spring feels like.

wheel of the year

A Pagan Celebration of the Spiral of the Year

Because we live our lives from beginning to middle to end we are tempted to think of time as linear. But time is a circle, a spiral of creation and destruction, of death and reincarnation, of birth and rebirth. These pieces celebrate that spiral and the renewal, the rejuvenation, to be found therein.

  • Blush --- 2024-05-01
    A celebration of life’s reawakening, its resurrection, in spring.
  • Lughnasadh --- 2024-08-04
seasonal cards

Holiday Greeting Cards

A collection of sentimental greeting cards from the spiral of the year, from our hearts to yours.

pen and quill

Words Matter

“Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.” The origin of this cautionary wisdom is lost to antiquity. These words have always been true and pertinent. Although the internet has placed an artificial degree of separation between the words we write or say and their consequences, words have tremendous power. They manifest reality. It is important to be careful and kind with them

shooting star

Guest Stars

**Open Call for Submissions** MoonLit Press was founded, in part, on a wish to be of service to the writing community. We know better than most how hard it is to get published, so we offer to share our space here with other writers here. Send us your best stuff and we will start the editorial review process. We will require a first serial copyright, but your work is yours to publish whenever and wherever else you choose to, with attribution to MoonLit Press.


Terryl Warnock is an eccentric with a happy heart who lives on the outskirts of town with her cat. She is known as an essayist, proof reader, editor, maker of soap, and proud pagan. A lifetime student, she has pursued science, religion, and sustainable communities. This, plus life experience from the local community service to ski instructor, from forest service worker to DMV supervisor, from hospitality to business owner gives her a broad view on the world.

Terryl is the author of:
The Miracle du jour, ISBN-10: 0989469859, ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0-9894698-5-2

AJ Brown, in a past life, was an embedded systems engineer (digital design engineer). He worked on new product designs from hard disk controllers, communication protocols, and link encryptors to battery monitors for electric cars.

A few years ago he surrendered his spot on the freeway to someone else. Now he is more interested in sailing, building out his live-in bus for travel, and supporting the idea of full-circle food: the propagation, growth, harvest, storage, preparation, and preservation of healthy sustenance. He is a strong supporter of Free/Libre Open Source Software[F/LOSS] and is willing to help most anyone in their quest to use it.

Together, we are MoonLit Press.

oldtime snowy city street

 

May your turkey be juicy and your pie crust flaky.

May your happiness be boundless and your gratitude list long.

May you be valiant when faced with danger and tender when faced with love.

May your nobler self prevail when faced with contention.

May your home shimmer warm and fragrant.

May your planet know you as a light touch.

May you have enough and may you be enough.

May you wander in wonder.

May your cheeks be rosy and may your heart beat fast.

May your corners be perfect and may your bows never go flat.

May you breathe deeply and rejoice in living.

May you deserve the love of animals and little children.

May you earn the respect and support of your community.

May you play as hard as you work during the coming year.

May your stockings be well-stuffed, your generosity expansive, and your heart full of joy.

May you know passion and peace.

May your soul sparkle like the stars in the cosmos.

May you stand close, always, to that which you hold sacred.

May the Elf that roams winter's longest nights be generous.

And may you find your heart's true desire gathered around your hearth.

fireplace
moonlit press logo, crescent moon with a star below

MoonLit Press wishes you all the best of the holidays this Yuletide. We thank you for your kind attention over the course of this past year as we have embarked on our experimental blog. We do so hope you’ve enjoyed it. We’ll be taking some time off in December to spend the holidays with our families and to revel in the season. We’ll see you again at the end of the year during the December New Moon.

Look for us on Mastodon, a free, open-source, distributed, independent chat service where there are no big corporations (or their agendas) between us.

Follow Terryl's work and give her feedback on:

Mastodon https://mastodon.sdf.org/@wordsbyterryl
email mailto:moonlitpress@proton.me


Gratitude list:

Graphic design by AJ Brown https://mastodon.sdf.org/@mral
Images by Weihnachten Kamin
Images by W. C. Bauer

Some images are through Creative Commons License and we would thank all of those creators if we could find their names.

Terryl is grateful to have the time and space to write, and will be using her Christmas break to develop some new inventory. She is grateful for the people who give of their time and attention to read her work. It is a gift beyond measure.

Terryl is also grateful to Al, whose skills compliment hers so well. There would be little point in doing the heavy lifting of writing without him, because without him nobody would ever read it.

Terryl and Al are both deeply thankful to the people who read our work. You’re why we do it. We love hearing back from you, and are ever so grateful to you for sharing our efforts with your friends and family.


Terryl Warnock is an eccentric with a happy heart who lives on the outskirts of town with her cat. She is known as an essayist, proof reader, editor, maker of soap, and proud pagan. A lifetime student, she has pursued science, religion, and sustainable communities. This, plus life experience from the local community service to ski instructor, from forest service worker to DMV supervisor, from hospitality to business owner gives her a broad view on the world.

Terryl is the author of:
The Miracle du jour, ISBN-10: 0989469859, ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0-9894698-5-2

AJ Brown, in a past life, was an embedded systems engineer (digital design engineer). He worked on new product designs from hard disk controllers, communication protocols, and link encryptors to battery monitors for electric cars.

A few years ago he surrendered his spot on the freeway to someone else. Now he is more interested in sailing, building out his live-in bus for travel, and supporting the idea of full-circle food: the propagation, growth, harvest, storage, preparation, and preservation of healthy sustenance. He is a strong supporter of Free/Libre Open Source Software[F/LOSS] and is willing to help most anyone in their quest to use it.

Together, we are MoonLit Press.

Word Nerd 2: Elusive Fluency

To be concluded

English isn't just my first language, it's my only language. I grieve the profundity of this ignorance because cultural and linguistic diversity is humanity's strength. It's what adds hue and texture to the beauty of the human tapestry we weave together. I have tried to

Read more...