occasional posts by risa aratyr
I look for hope and joy at every station of the sun. I look harder when I’m writing a post. Festivals should be festive, and laments make for poor holiday reading. Since Samhain last, when flawed but still recognizable America fell to the oligarchs, I have done my best to avoid turning this blog into … Read more Season’s Greetings from Oceania
In my local time zone, the true cross quarter – the exact midpoint between the last equinox and the upcoming solstice – occurred last night at 22:56/10:56pm. By my calculations, that made last night Samhain Eve, and today the first day of Winter. Here in my new residential corner of the world, Summer ended long … Read more The First Day of Winter
I’ve borrowed (stolen, ripped off, plagiarized) the title above from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. The mistress of confessional poetry coined the phrase in reference to another season entirely – August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time. – but, for me, her … Read more The Odd Uneven Time
In my pre-move post (May Madness), I predicted that our Bealtaine-tide drive from Sonoma to Rochester was going to be a bumpy ride. It was, indeed. Cassandra, at your service. What I failed to predict was that the Rocky Road to Rochester would prove to be the easiest part of the journey. To those of … Read more The Off Season
Seems sacrilegious, somehow, to be feeling down on Midsummer’s Eve. Even if it’s only a little. Some people dear to me are bringing aching hearts to a Celebration of Life this weekend. It will be wonderful, it will be grand. It will be just the party Mary asked for – a party that, for a … Read more Summer in a Strange Land