SOON

A Sunday morning fastly eroding and soon to be afternoon and it will be once I finish this composition of this missive.

The days, the weeks and months now just fly by.  They say it has something to do with getting older, perhaps.  I'm also hearing alot that time or our perception thereof has accelerated greatly as the vibrations in the universe increase and more galactic waves push through our galaxy in preparation for the paradigm shift.  I've heard it said now that our typical day is now that of a 16 hour one.  The clocks still measure the same 24 hour day, the sun rises and sets on the same times as it did centuries ago.  Now if it feels like you can't get the same amount of things done in a day as you did 20 years ago??, this is why. I know I can't and no it's not because I'm moving slower with age, I'm not that old, yet!  Time is basically all relative with just us humans really the ones that measure it out in increments and how our minds perceive it in this three dimensional realm within a multi dimensional universe or multiverse.  Yes time has sped up and will continue to do so exponentially now.

As I compose this missive it's now past Mid August and my most favorite time of the year is rapidly approaching that being Autumn. I'm already planning Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas or the more Pagan variations thereof. Planning on how to observe it more in tune with my Pagan beliefs.  Seems like last week I was out bike riding on Memorial Day weekend planning the 4th of July. Feels like a couple days ago it was July 4th, the day was filled with magic. I have the photos that captured that magic and it was one of the best I've had in my adult life. I always know that once the 4th of July passes the rest of the summer is a blur and such is being the case.

Labor Day weekend now just 3 weeks away.  My favorite time of the year is autumn. Maybe I'm what is known as an "Autumn" Person. My favorite colors are Reds and Oranges, browns and yellows, I love the warm spices of cinnamon, allspice, cloves.  Labor Day weekend I'll go to the shed out in back of house and lug out the autumn decorations and adorn the house inside with the festive colors of autumn leaves and dried floral arrangements. 

Living in the Florida Keys the summers here are regarded as many northerners regard winter. Northerners are glad to see spring/summer after the drab, harshness of winter, the warmer days mean more activity outside up north in spring/summer. Reverse that for the Florida Keys.  Summers here are wickedly brutal with torrid heat and humidity.  Yes you can do everything out of doors but expect to be drenched with sweat, get dehydrated.  We look forward to the cooler days of autumn and winter as folk up north look forward to the warmer days of spring and summer.

As much as I abhor commercialism and capitalism I still look forward to the store displays that mark the turning of a season none other than autumn.   The first signs clearly evident with the Back To School merchandise but that's only a small part.  Suddenly one day you go into the grocery store and you see those familiar orange, yellow bags of candy popping up in a display. It's just a small section at first. A closer inspection reveals this to be Halloween candy and that should start appearing in the next couple weeks if it hasn't already.  Suddenly those candy displays and bags like a virus multiply. What was just  a small section or two of shelf of a few assorted bags mushrooms and envelops an entire store aisle. Suddenly like mushrooms after a rain a store display erupts with candy and then Halloween decorations.  Now the stops are pulled as commercialism makes the best of the coming months.  It's all mental programming for the BIG HO HO (Christmas), get you in the spirit. Think about it.  First the candy and then you start seeing Halloween decorations for sale.  Suddenly you notice the baking supplies making a prominent feature on store end caps and eventually a section of store relegated just for the upcoming baking season.  That is probably the most favorite for me of the season is the baking, I just love food and sweets and its all comfort foods.

Notice that one day in the coming weeks you will enter the grocery store and immediately your eyes will be greeted with the autumn decorations of the colors associated with the season. What is more noticeable is those Cinnamon scented brooms and that spicy aroma permeate an entire section of the grocery store. It more often burns ones nostrils and makes the eyes water it's so strong.  Nothing gets ones mind thinking more about autumn and the Holidays than Cinnamon.  It's my favorite smell on the planet. I keep our home filled with Cinnamon essential oils year round.  I think because it's a strong comfort smell to me.  Capitalism knows this also to use as a form of mind control basically to get you revved up and nostalgic.  A building crescendo commences with the colors, sights, sounds of autumn.  As days grow shorter, the nights cooler and the trees change.  The stores proudly display the autumn harvests of colorful gourds, pumpkins. Entire sections are relegated to Halloween.  You are thinking Halloween is still aways off but you notice something else that is looming amongst the autumn displays.  This usually happens in the shopping malls first and like a plague it spreads into the chain stores.  Suddenly trees sprout among the shopping midways adorned with the gaily colored lights of the upcoming Saturnalia still months away.  The jolly fat man in the red suit starts appearing. You think to yourself. Gee let's at least get Halloween over with first. No wait.  I'm still in shorts and sandals in New York let me have a couple more barbeques, a weekend out on the lake before I even have to think about Halloween that is still yet such a long ways off.  Not in the accelerated pace of time.  The youngins will be yelling trick or treat while you scratch your head thinking we just did the 4th of July and oh wait that pile of dirty clothes has my summer shorts still in it. Yep I better wash them before the whole damn laundry pile walks away on its own and put them away for the winter, clean?? that's an option.

I personally look forward to Labor Day.  My mood and focus immediately shifts to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fall TV. lineup. It's the first sign that cooler weather will be coming. I look forward to the upcoming baking season, the house filled with the smells of baking and the colorful decorations that undergo the same process in our home such as the commercial stores.  Some autumn decos festooned throughout, an explosion of Halloween adornments and even more so out in the yard. Quickly replaced by Turkeys, Puritan figures and cornucopias. That can't be swept away fast enough to get ready for the grand finale of Saturnalia, The Big Ho Ho or Christmas.  We hold onto these traditions as they are comforts. Comforts to most of our youth, of happier and or simpler times.

As I grow more in tune with my Pagan roots and beliefs I shift my focus more each year away from the commercialism and celebrate the season itself.  I won't adorn our entire front yard into a massive spook yard.  Awesome yes I must admit. Too much work and effort for just a dozen kids to come and see. Then I have to take all the crap down and put it away! I still have open plastic totes of unused fireworks from the 4th of July sitting on the treadmill and floor of the garage. My Excuse? It's just too damn hot to mess around sorting and organizing. I don't like going into our garage this time of year. Its average temperature hovers around 100.

I will still observe Halloween though but more along the lines of Pagan custom of All Hallows Eve or Samhain. I'll still buy some bags of candy just for us two adult kids in the house. I'll still carve a jack o lantern or two or three and sneak a few decos up in the yard. I just have to remember I have to take all that crap down!!!. Then Thanksgiving.  Wow where else do you spend what you would on an entire weeks worth of groceries and more if you entertain for a meal that takes days to prep for, hours and hours to cook, minutes to eat and is all doing down the toilet the next day.  We however give in and do it.  Yes I do enjoy Thanksgiving it's on my list of favorite holidays, I enjoy it immensely. I keep saying each year I will simplify. Each year I try but it just don't feel right unless you go full tilt, overboard.

What gets me is the Thanksgiving turkey is not even cold yet and many Americans are heading out to the stores to stand in line all night for Black Friday.  A Commercialism nightmare, one of the biggest snake oil scams the greasy wheels of Capitalism has going.  You think your getting a huge bargain?  Just remember where this stuff is made that cost pennies on the dollar to mass produce, has a HUGE markup then put the word "SALE" on it and sell it while still making a HUGE profit because now you are selling mass quantity.  I have no part of that day at all.  I have no desire to stand in line all night nor get mowed down in the screaming stampeded while going in the doorway. I don't live in the north so couldn’t imagine standing outside in 30 degree weather.  Ya know I wonder though?  That Thanksgiving meal folk gorged on?? A gut load of food now digesting.  You know the saying, food in, poop out.  You’re in line for the sale of the century. That Wii Play station that will be on sale for $50 bucks, the store only has a limited amount, Your freezing your you know what off and "Duty Calls"  Most parking lots don't even have porta potties and you don't dare step outta line and loose your spot. Folk are out for blood for that SALE, that spirit of giving and being nice is already in the toilet ahead of your bowel movement when it comes to messing with getting that latest deal.  I even hear of some "Hard Core" shoppers wearing adult diapers.  I draw the line there. No Thanks. I'll stay at home and be very entertained by the You Tube clips of the fights breaking out, the mayhem, and the people squatting behind whatever gives them a sense of privacy to relieve their bodily functions for all to see on the World Wide Web.

Yep no thanks.  My partner and I stopped buying gifts for that one day, spending money we don't have. Instead we have Christmas year round. You just surprise one another with something when you get a little extra money during the year.  I think I will put up a small tree this year, one of those table top jobs just so I can puts some of those high tech LED Christmas lights on it.  I used to go crazy decorating. It looked like Santa puked inside and outside the home of everything/anything dealing with Christmas. Talk about over kill!!  I am a person that takes things to the extreme.  I think the last time I put Christmas lights up outside I lost count when the lights got near the 100,000 mark.  Let's see that would be 2006. Yep I remember. I almost burnt the garage down on Christmas when I overloaded the garage circuit trying to reroute extension cords.  A line of thunderstorms was moving in.  Most of my outdoor outlets were GFCI type. Rain, extension cords and GFCI's don't get along and not conducive for Christmas lighting.  I was scared shitless when I saw the scorched outlet when I unplugged everything in January.  I'm glad the circuit breakers in the main box kept tripping and I wasn't a fool to try and over ride that!  Christmas night of 2006 our yard was mostly dark as heavy rains pounded, GFCI's had all tripped. Weeks and weeks of work putting it all up, fretting over burnt out stands in the meantime. All for one day and the night it was most important it didn't work.  About had a bowel movement in my pants come January at the sight of the electric bill also.  Then what goes up must come down.  I think I wound up taking all the stuff down somewhere around Valentines Day or was it St. Patrick’s Day of 2007.  As a matter of fact there are still about 800 white twinkle lights now a tangled mess in our orange tree as of August 2009, Screw It!!.  I keep it there to remind me not to undergo the yearly madness of giving into the madness for just one day.  Nope I look most forward now to having the Yearly Yule bonfire in the yard, observing the Winter Solstice rite with ritual, followed by some small feasting.  This is where the whole birth of Christmas stems from even the birth of Jesus. Ask me sometime I've done the research.  Halloween comes from Samhain and alot of lore, legend and tradition to get taken by the conglomerated, convoluted grubs of commercialism.

Nope this year I look forward to observing the true rites in accordance to my Pagan beliefs and Spiritualism, the way it's meant.  Talking too and thanking the Spirits/Creator, keeping it simple.  If I do want some nostalgia to remind me of my youth and bring some comfort I keep it small and simple. Remember... I have to take it all down!

It all seems so far off but really isn't, it's coming and very soon.  I talk about this now because before I know it I'll have to write it in the past tense.