Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
'We ask the wrong question when we say, "What will happen after death?" When we speak about the future, we speak of time, but when we die, we leave time behind.' — Tolstoy, on November 7th, Calendar of Wisdom Thoughts?... ©Elizabeth Anker 2022
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
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
4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands with one palm out, feeding… Continue reading St Francis of the Birdbath
there’s a lot of advice on how we should feel and what we should think. not a lot on how to adjust the body to these changes we’re experiencing now, how to live physically. how to be in the body in this time and place. ultimately that is the only kind of living. in the… Continue reading michaelmas murmuring
The sun passes the ecliptic today at 9:04 pm (EDT). This is the autumnal equinox. By now, those of you who tolerate my blathering know that this is not the true equinox since that day of equal length for night and day is dependent on latitude. Here where I live, we have a 12-hour day… Continue reading Autumn Reflection
It is the Feast of the Assumption. In the Church calendar, this is the day Mother Mary was taken bodily up to heaven without the inconvenience of dying first. But in the older calendar of Europe, this was the time when it was recognized that the heat of summer was breaking. The Dog Days end… Continue reading The Feast of the Assumption
By My Solitary Hearth 