Something Wicca this way comes.

Before I start: Salem is my favorite place in the entire world.

Reasons why Salem is the best place on Earth:

1. It is adorable

2. Pumpkins adorn every porch.

3. Most every house and lawn is decorated for Halloween.

4. Witches walk around the Salem streets fully clad in black cloaks, hats, and boots.

5. An older witch, complete with a pentagram tattoo on her widow's peek, pulled me over and told me "I like your pentacle, little witch." (I had just purchased a sterling silver pentagram, which I was wearing around my neck.)

6. I had peanut butter chocolate fudge. 'Nuff said.

7. I got my first official psychic/tarot reading.

8. I thought Natick was quaint...Salem takes the cake with its cobblestone streets and apothecaries.

9. I learned the term "Leaf Peeper" on the drive up through a beautiful countryside full of fiery trees. Apparently, a Leaf Peeper is a person who drives along the North Eastern coast to watch the changing leaves. Most Leaf Peepers originate from the Carolinas, namely South Carolina. They are usually old people. Interesting stuff.

10. I've wanted to go to Salem since, I don't know, EVER!

And now that I have, I can safely say that it is my absolute favorite town ever.

Love is Louder

So, I survived my first peaceful protest. In all honesty, part of me was afraid I was going to get shot by an angry religious fanatic, or caught in a riot, or something else horrible and violent. It was not so. A huge group of kids from my school and I took the train in from our school into the city, where we walked for about thirty minutes to get to the place the counter-protest was congregating. Even walking there was magical, as we were all excited, in good moods, and dressed in pretty white clothes (the protest encouraged this, as a sign of peace).

On the way there another group of young people joined us. They were college kids, and thought we were cute and young. I suppose college students do consider us babies in the ways of the world. It's funny how such things are measured. Anyways, the crowd of happy, white-clad people grew and grew. Every orientation, gender, walk of life was there, it seemed. It was slightly ridiculous how excited we all were, and it didn't help that movie cameras and news station started to flock. Finally, we were instructed by the amazing and kind college kids organizing this to line up in rows of three. Then, we marched. We whooped and cheered and made the peace sign and signed "love" in sign language. Periodically we broke into loud chorusing chants of "Love is louder". We marched around a large city block twice before reconvening in our starting place to celebrate. People from all over the city area came to watch us. Some were happy to see us, others not so much.

At the end, just as we were dispersing, a large, white van pulled up beside our enormous group. The van's outer walls were absolutely covered in scripture quotes. I was completely freaked out at first, and then the passenger rolled down the window. We knew he was from the Church we were counter protesting against, and he was not pleased to see us. Basically, he informed us that we were all going to hell, and then held out a narrow, yellow pamphlet detailing why. So what did we do? We showed him the strongest love we could. We lined up in front of the van and chanted
"Love is louder" with smiles on our faces until they drove off and away. It was epic.

I learned many a valuable lesson yesterday, the most valuable being that positivity truly conquers all. Acceptance and compassion are palpable and strong. People can be very, very good. Even wonderful.

Love is louder.