Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
In Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom, he says that a “man” does not fear death. “Fear of death is our animal nature,” he claims. I don’t know that any part of that is accurate. To be sure, we have a very unhealthy relationship to death. We tell ourselves stories of our mastery of death, of death’s… Continue reading The Day of the Dead
It is All Saints Day, All Hallows, the ancient new year festival called Samhaine, which is usually translated as “end of summer”. Last night was the All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, a new year's eve in former days with all the sweet treats, riotous good fun, and debauchery that entails. This is one of the few… Continue reading All Hallows: An Entanglement
Today is All Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, the first night in the ancient new year's festival that Celtic language speaking people called Samhaine. We hardly remember that it was once a sacred festival, celebrating endings and beginnings, nor that it was "converted" by the Catholic Church into a day for honoring the dead. It's possible that… Continue reading Cookies for Hallowe’en
Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World: Essays Barry Lopez Random House, 2022 In his final collection of essays, Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World, Barry Lopez got me thinking on trauma. His was a life-long struggle to understand that we don’t ever get over it. Nor do we successfully bury it under a stoic silence. But his… Continue reading Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World: Book Discussion
Today is the Dark Falling Leaves Moon. Tomorrow the 13th moon of the wheel of the year, the Hunter’s Moon, begins. Next week is Halloween, All Hallow’s, and the Day of the Dead. Also Bonfire Night if one is so inclined. It is cool and damp and rather dark with not much more than 10… Continue reading Ordinary Magic
That gardening works always takes me by surprise. I put these hard and cold and seemingly inert nuggets into dirt and, wondrously, plants happen. Black dirt turns green with sprouts. Flowers follow. Bees, birds and all manner of critters appear and get busy where before there was nobody doing much of anything. And in the… Continue reading A Garden of Wonder… Still
It’s been quite couple of weeks. There were two more events at work that left me numb with exhaustion and despair — and more illness, both as a result of people bringing their novel diseases into the very small and not notably well-ventilated shop in which I work and as a result of that exhaustion… Continue reading Two Rules for Happy
Alyssum: still going, also still feeding bees and hover flies Today is one of those mini-marker days in my annual round, a day when there is a tangible sign that the dark season is here. Sunset here in my part of the world is just before 6pm today and, same day, sunrise is just before… Continue reading In Rotation
Or: Why this is NOT Columbus Day Here is this guy. He has several boats worth of men with him on a trip into the unknown. They are lost, hungry, tired. Many are sick. Some have died already. They probably stink worse than an open sewer riddled with rotting bodies. Which is not far off… Continue reading Clarification
Odin Rides to the Rock by Arthur Rackham The Old Farmers' Almanac calls this moon cycle the Hunter's Moon, but for me the Falling Leaves Moon is full today at 4:54pm. They seem to think this moon is named for the hunting season. This is neither temporally nor mythically correct. It is not yet hunting… Continue reading Falling Leaves Moon
By My Solitary Hearth 