Adele’s Aerie

(I used to have this on an About Adele page on my old website, and in this new site, a shortened About page is more appropriate and modern. I’ve decided a blog post is a more appropriate place for this, anyway. Sometimes, it helps to write out my beliefs, my priorities, my activism, my soapbox… and other times, I just need to get out in the fresh air and hike alone with the rocks and trees and open wind. And other times, I just need to go for coffee with a friend. Today is one of the soapbox days, I guess. The original version of this content was in part inspired by NPR’s This I Believe.)

I live passionately, and I focus intently on activities at home and at work. I am a perfectionist endlessly fascinated by life, the universe and everything. This also means that I am endlessly striving for one of those “work-life balance” things I’ve heard so much about.

I believe in imagination. I believe in hope. I believe that the journey to explore ourselves and our world is infinitely engaging.
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I am a firm believer in the idea that you can celebrate the past year on any day of the year, and even on every day of the year. After all, for every day, there are 365 that came before it and 365 that will come after it! So I celebrate a few New Year’s holidays.

For many earth religions, including Neo-Paganism, Wicca and Neo-Druidism, this sunset marks the new year’s holiday Samhain (that’s pronounced “sow-en”, sow rhyming with now, not sew). Literally, it is Summer’s Ending. The day after is Winter’s Beginning.

Tomorrow is also (depending on who you ask, of course) All Saints, All Souls, Día de los Muertos, and the Day of the Dead… for Western Christianity of various flavors, including Catholicism.

No matter what traditions you follow, the change in the weather in the Northern Hemisphere is pretty hard to ignore.

The edge between the past and the future thins this night. Autumn holds us close, as the Earth turns on its axis to tilt further toward winter. What has come before seems closer, as the deepening shadows herald the mystery that is the seasons’ change. The air feels, tastes different this night.

Perhaps it is merely the change in humidity and air pressure difference of a cold front moving through. But I for one gladly ignore the technicalities of scientific measurement, prefering to feel the scents, the textures, the wind across my face, the crunch of leaves under my feet, the color of the sky… these are a sip of the essence of change.

I find it a convenient time, halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, to think back on the year and toward the next. To prepare myself, both physically and mentally, and my home… for the coming winter and for the future. To make peace with the past. To remember the dead, those who have come before, and those who are yet to be. It’s also a time to reflect on who I have been, and who I want to become.

This night I will begin to bid farewell to the previous year, and make provision for the year to come. Tomorrow, I will mark the day with a salute to and reflection on some of my ancestors. And as night falls tomorrow, a new year begins.

The wheel turns.

(I wrote a poem.)

Tease
by Adele Shakal

The crisp in the air teases us,
Wakens a yearning for action,
For preparing, and storing,
Weaving our webs of family,
Cocooning with our thoughts and dreams,
Nestling tidbits into our burrows,
Securing our homes and ourselves
For the coming winter.

Yet just when we feel about to begin,
Autumn snatches back its whispered caress,
And we are pushed, unwilling,
Back into summer’s warm embrace,
A lingering farewell of too much heat.

Every autumn, I feel reborn.

That wonderful feeling sometimes happens in the middle of winter for me, and sometimes in spring… and almost never in summer. Makes me wonder why I’m living in LA!

Summers here wear me out with the heat and the dryness, and I turn lobster-red rather than tanning in the sun, so the beach holds no great allure for me. Beaches are nice and all, especially if you can wander just looking for bits of shells… but I like forests, prairies and mountains better.

A few days ago, a cool front moved through. The skies opened up and beautiful clear water fell in quantity for the first time in what feels like years rather than months. The previously sweltering dry air now has a chill, and a certain crisp moisture to it reminiscent of the smell of impending snow in the midwest. It was misting as I drove to work this morning.

Fall foods are wonderful. Baked apples stuffed with homemade granola, caramel and candy corn, pumpkin bread and hearty soups. Mmmm. Homemade apple pies and hot spiced cider, or mulled wine.

I wish I had a fireplace.