Dear Biddy,

The seasonal changes are the epitome of the life and death cycle and my quest to live more in sync with the seasons emotionally and spiritually helps this pilgrim walk more in step with the UniVerse.

Halloween – All Saints – All Souls – is here and even though the hemisphere I am in doesn’t have many rituals to go with this seasonal change, it is part of my heritage to mark this transition. I am grateful that celtic spirit seems to be in my DNA and my knowledge of the classics reminds me  Persephone (Proserpina) and Demeter (Ceres) bring the spring. So there is an alignment of sorts at this time where I live and all the colours of the rainbow bloom in my garden. Maybe I will have a ritual glass of Ceres to mark the occasion? I am sure you would have raised a glass Biddy!

So it was, trying to be in step this week, I found myself driving past the hospital my father died in – the last place he drew breath. I stopped off, went into the café, bought a drink and sat in the sun in the courtyard. I have done this a few times in the past years and I felt his absence deeply last year when he was not there for the first wedding in the next generation of my family at this same time (as regular readers may recall). As I left the hospital to continue on my journey for the day, the trees next to where I had parked erupted in song and circled ahead and flew high into the sky – a hundred fold of blessings rising into the clouds. I had a lump in my throat, a few tears trickled into the sunlight.

It had been a spontaneous action to stop by and while I had done it before, never in this season. I found myself humming the tune of Turn, Turn, Turn – the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes put into song for my generation.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Another season brings an another time and the seasons do help me – in reality and metaphorically – work out what time it actually is and no one time is mutually exclusive to another – they are co-exist is splendid harmony (not unison).