Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
It is Ash Wednesday. In the Christian calendar, this day inaugurates the fasts of Lent. This is holy time, a period of 46 days of cleansing and purging the body and soul before the celebration of Easter. The time echoes the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before he went to his death. Originally,… Continue reading The Daily: 22 February 2023
Mardi Gras Means Pancakes... I briefly considered writing about Mardi Gras today, but I just don’t like it enough. I am not a Carnival person. I don’t like the noise, the crowds, the mess, the stink. I hate feeling inebriated and I simply can’t tolerate drunk people. I have no use for plastic beads. And… Continue reading The Daily: 21 February 2023
The Wolf Moon ends today. Tomorrow is Mardi Gras and the New Hunger Moon. Time is getting on! One of the best and purest joys is having a rest after labor. — Marcus Aurelius (found in Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom on 19 February) I've decided that I am done with my job. I am just… Continue reading The Daily: 20 February 2023
We lost power last Thursday night. That I still don't know why is testament to the ordinariness of such things. I was typing away at something and suddenly all the lights went out. It had been snowing quite heavily when I drove home from work, but the snow had turned to freezing drizzle by the… Continue reading The Daily: 17 February 2023
February First Fruits & Quirinalia To highlight just how different the seasonal cycle is depending on latitude, mid-February, the last ides period of the ritual year in Rome, was a festival of the first-fruit offerings. While here in Vermont we are barely thinking about the growing season, never mind able to see actual earth, during… Continue reading The Daily: 16 February 2023
A Benediction for Lupercalia Today is Lupercalia. This is one of the oldest festivals in EuroWestern culture and, in fact, likely predates the Euro-bits. As with most ancient things, this holy time is a dense web of themes that don’t all mesh together well, but somehow make a lovely tapestry when viewed from a certain… Continue reading The Daily: 15 February 2023
Like many people, I find the American version of Valentine’s Day and the saccharine and monochromatic view of love it promotes to be repulsive. In my younger days I assumed the whole farce was invented by the greeting card and gifting industry, along with the rise of all manner of fake holidays intended to get… Continue reading The Daily: 14 February 2023
Parentalia As February marked the last month in the ancient Roman calendar, the Romans spent this time of year setting themselves in accord with the world. The 9-day festival of Parentalia began on 13 February and culminated with the day of Feralia, which began at sundown on the 21st. Parentalia was a sacred time to… Continue reading The Daily: 13 February 2023
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. — Friedrich Nietzsche (in the Old Farmer's Almanac 2023 Planner) I do not agree with Nietzsche on many things. Big surprise there, I'm sure. So when I saw this alongside the… Continue reading The Daily: 8 February 2023
I've had a few productive mornings during this miserable cold. Maybe I don't sleep as soundly and the boundaries are thinner between wakefulness and dreaming. Whatever the reason, I wake with words already formed into poetry. Thought I might share a few. under the fig tree Image from Garden.eco(and coincidentally exactly how i remember the… Continue reading The Daily: 7 February 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 