I went to the movies this past weekend, the first time I’ve gone in several months. I went to see the very excellent movie Avatar, but I’m not really going to talk about the movie, but rather the knowledge that it reminded me of.
Have you ever been going along, minding your own business, when something suddenly hits you and changes the way you look at your entire life? I’m not talking about an accident or sudden misfortune, but a shift in perspective that causes what seems like total chaos to re-order itself into something completely different. I had such an experience this morning, and my life will never be the same.
Yesterday I was doing my grocery shopping as I usually do Saturday mornings, and when I stopped in one store I found something I haven’t seen in at least a couple years: chestnuts. Like pumpkin pie, chestnuts typically only come around once a year. Sadly, they are getting harder and harder to find.
For anyone who doesn’t know, yesterday was Mabon, a Wiccan holiday that most people in the northern hemisphere know as the autumnal equinox. Mabon is a harvest holiday, a celebration of the bounty of the fields. It’s a time to acknowledge the things we’re harvesting in our lives for the year. Except this year was a little different for me.
I didn’t realize it’s been so long since my last post - too long by a measure. I suppose that’s the price of a busy life. Anyway, I was at the gardens Thursday evening for the first of 5 Rhythm & Blooms events. Being in the gardens at night is always a treat for me, and I made the most of it.
I’ve been working on my Riverbanks project for three and a half months now, and one of the common threads during my visits have been the presence of geese on the river. I know now that geese are year round residents here, but I wanted to examine their metaphysical symbolism for a few minutes.
In which hidden things are found, the circle of life continues, and tragedy occurs.
Ok, I’ve heard all I can listen to about this without saying something. Two days ago, a tiger escaped from it’s enclosure inthe San Francisco Zoo, killing one man and mauling two others before being killed by officers responding to reports of an escaped tiger. That someone was killed, or even injured, is completely regrettable, What is absolutely intolerable and pisses me off is the killing of the tiger.
It should come as no surprise to my regular readers that I believe there’s a rhythm to our lives. The way our hours string together, followed by days of hours, and months, and years. I know this terrotory has been tread many times before by some great thinkers, but I’d like to follow their path, at least a little bit.
I’ll tell you right up front - this is going to be a long post, because we’re going on a trip of sorts, to connect the dots to make my point. It all starts with a movie released in 1998, called still breathing.