The Witching Ball...

A witching ball is a colorful blown ball of glass, with delicate strands of glass left inside that hangs from the window. None of them are exactly the same. Legend has it that as the evil spirits and mojo enters your home, it would get caught in the strands, trapping it inside, rendering it harmless.

So of course, I had to have one.

After years of looking, I found one in the colors I wanted in a small gift store in Hyannis.  Swirls of light blues and peaches, it hangs in the window of the sun room, gathering about as much evil mojo as dust now a days.

And while I am a rational person that knows that life is no more than a series of ebbing and flowing, there are days when I look at it and think to myself, "Maybe this thing's just so chock full of bad mojo that stuff's getting through."  

Over the last few months, there's been a lot of days when I succumb to the superstition and I think maybe it's time to get a new one. I'd love to have one custom blown at the glass blowing place down the street, but given that it took me years to find the first one and that custom ones can be quite pricey, the idea has been long since thrown to the back burner.

Christmas was very simple this year, particularly for Tony and myself.  Along with a 7 pound Resse's peanut butter cup, I had all of Tony's mother's photographs put into an album. And, after asking for a gift list virtually everyday, I finally told Tony to get me a waterproof camera, since my last one took a swim, so it was not unexpected when I opened a small Nikon camera, in highly visible neon yellow, along with a new memory card on Christmas morning. But quite unexpectedly, along side it, professionally wrapped in paper unlike all the rest, sat another small box with my name on it.

He had gone off the list Pen Pals....

Carefully wrapped in purple tissue paper was another witching ball.

Dark blue and purple, it reminds me of the rainbow iridescence you would see in an oil spill on the water's surface.  It's hanging in the first of the four windows in the sun room, one window away from it's compliment, ready and waiting to catch this year's evil mojo as it's happens upon our home.

Because while know that we are due for an upswing of good fortune soon, a little witching magic never hurt anyone.