Avalon

30. Week of October 24.

Dark outside, but bright within!

Confident, sure, my thoughts I spin

Apples ripen on Avalon’s shore

I clearly know Myself once more

My spirit sees clear, though eyes grow dim

Winter without, Summer within!

This is the final week of the Celtic year. We’ve “come home” to ourselves from the year’s journey. This is the time to honor our ancestors, give thanks to the spirits of nature that surround us in our daily life and work, and celebrate the beauty of life.

Halloween means “Holy Evening.” It is a time to honor the dead and to acknowledge that we all will someday pass through the death gateway. This special time, the gateway between the light and dark halves of the year, invites us to remember that all endings are transitions from one state to another. Though all will be transformed, nothing is ever truly lost. A friend of mine wrote a song:

Ebb and flow they are all the same

For the end is but a lie

and the candle is not the flame

Like the flame in the Jack O’Lantern, we carry the light of our past experiences with us as we journey into the darkness of winter.

Diwali is also on October 31 this year. All over the world, we celebrate the light that shines in the darkness as the shadows gather, as we turn away from the outer world and settle into ourselves to spin winter’s dreams of the future.

May you have a joyful and beautiful week of celebration!