As I draft this post on October 31st, 2022, hopefully posting it on the same, I have a calm about me that accepts that I may not complete it and it may get posted a few days later.
We have long crossed the Autumn Equinox or Mabon.
Each day, we lose a little more light in the day, which creates an opportunity to embrace the mysteries of this darkness and the future possibilities for when the light returns. We can and, in my humble opinion, should use this time to embrace the uncertainty of the future light with excitement for all the possibilities.
I use the pagan festival terms “Mabon” and “Samhain” not because I am a devout pagan but because it reminds me of how so many of our religions, beliefs, philosophies, and practices are all following the same cycles of this rock we live on in different words and terms. I am a devout believer that if we could all accept that we are moved by the same cycles no matter our religion, culture, or beliefs that there would be far less turmoil and conflict in the world. We all want and are all saying the same damn thing in different words and practices. If we could embrace this “sameness” we might get closer to understanding that we are one.
But enough esotericism. This time of endings and beginnings also reminds me of a post I wrote just before the pandemic brought many of us to our knees and ended this journey for so many. The post was about the (wo)man-made cycles we tend to revolve our plans around. They have their purpose, and our connection to the greater society pulls us into following them but are not absolute. I intend on using this cycle of darkness to plan the next steps in my journey while also embracing that EVERY DAY IS NEW YEAR’S DAY! Here is the original post:
Every day is New Year’s Day
Write it on your heart
Ralph Waldo Emerson
that every day is the best day in the year.
Depending on your source, anywhere from 80% to 92% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by February. Does it make sense to wait an entire year to reset, renew, and establish new targets? Does it make sense to base your improvement targets on a calendar created by Julius Caesar based on the Roman God Janus and eventually widely accepted and named after Pope Gregory XIII?
Don’t get me wrong. It makes sense to have a universal “Civic” calendar for consistency in a global economy, but that doesn’t mean your personal life needs to revolve around this arbitrary day. You can find a New Year’s Day from various cultures in almost every month of the Gregorian Year so don’t limit your #Joysetting to just January 1st. Here is the rest of the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. I think it summarizes this thought perfectly.
Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.This new day is too dear,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Collected Poems and Translations
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Wishing you and your’s a Happy Samhain, Happy Halloween, Happy All Hallows’ Eve, Happy New Year, Happy (insert whatever you want),
Michael “Gus” Gusky
P.S. Looks like I am going to get this posted on the same day!