There are many accomplishments in my life for which I am proud. My academic accomplishments and awards were the high points of my childhood.

I am proud of my engineering and computer science degrees and my eight promotions/advancements at Bell Atlantic/Verizon. And in spite of how difficult it became at times, I am proud of my many contributions within YOBU, Revolutionary Workers League, National Organization for Women, Washington Peace Center, Sojourner Truth Congregation of Unitarian Universalists, and Reclaiming.

I am proud of Dark Flame Coven, Reflections Mystery School, and my web design company, Amber Eyes Solutions. Hell, I am even proud of this blog, Katrina’s Joy.

But besides my corporate career (25 years) and my coven (14 years), my longest running project is Connect DC.

Back in 1998, Dark Flame Coven was notorious only because we were public. This is surprising when you realize that we have never had more than six members. I am not sure, but I think we had already been on the front page of the Washington Post and had been invited to do ritual at several local Unitarian Universalist churches.

But it was after I attended the Reclaiming Spring Equinox ritual in San Francisco, that I felt Dark Flame could do more. So in the summer of 1998, I cajoled Dark Flame plus members of other covens, several Radical Fairies and a few radical feminists friends such as Dr. Loraine Hutchins to join me in Eric Eldritch’s living room to plan our public celebration of the Summer Solstice right here in DC. We pulled together a ritual on a rooftop with a few small theatrics ending with the presentation of the Sun cake by my coven sister Rose and her Radical Fairy brother Nicko. It was glorious!

It was after noting the discomfort of a coven member plus several of the invited covens, that I decided to pursue my dream as a separate public ritual group. And so it was after our public Summer Solstice ritual that I began to plan for what became known as the original working of Connect DC.

Next Spring will be Connect DC’s ten-year anniversary. But yesterday’s ritual on the mall was the ten-year anniversary of my test run. Next year we will celebrate in public, but right now, I am celebrating the manifestation of a vision and the realization of a dream ... my dream … come true. And for me, this is a source of great pride.

Thank you to Dark Flame and the entire DC community, and of course, a hearty thank you especially to the ancestors and the gods.

A grateful Katrina

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