Blog o’ Gnosis

Last weekend I went to a lovely Lammas dinner at my friend Victoria’s house, a feast fit for the Gods and a few dozen people as well. I love a good harvest meal, and any menu that starts with home-baked bread, whole poached salmon and fresh tomato slices is just bound to be good. The company was splendid, the fog came in like a blanket without too much wind, and I got back to find I had blessedly missed much of my daughter’s late summer Buffy-fest, wherein she watches an entire season of episodes in a shockingly short amount of time. Ah, to be young and bored again!

Harvest is a rewarding and also a nerve-wracking time. To reap the benefits of long months of work is good news, but it is not always easy and rarely goes completely according to plan. You never know what will wash ashore from the deep as you go about the business of finishing off projects and tidying up loose ends.

In my case, there are a few really big projects I’ve been working steadily on, and while they all seem to be nearing resolution, this week it dawned on me that unfortunately they were all going to get more difficult towards the end.

A long and very complicated property issue which has been held up for a year now shows signs of resolution; however, this means that for the next month the outside of my house will be completely torn apart as siding and everything else is replaced. That wouldn’t be so bad, but all the banging comes right at a time when I have a couple big writing deadlines looming and need to concentrate.

So naturally for the first time in my life I am also experiencing tendonitis caused by too much typing. A crash course in ergonomics is not exactly what I wanted right now, while I just have to keep writing, but like it or not it’s what I get to do—while my house is reverberating with the sounds of demolition, and I am being distracted by the myriad decisions one faces during a construction project.

The list goes on, but suffice it to say this will be one hell of a month. To top it off, this afternoon a friend and I were looking at a potential workshop space, and the guy renting it turned out to be really insufferable. Apropos of nothing, he started in on how he really appreciates it when things are hard, because then he knows he’ll get a lot out of the experience. Yes, he is really a fan of difficulties, he welcomes them with open arms, because you know you get what you pay for and who wouldn’t want the wisdom that comes with living through difficult times?

Right away I thought of several (to my mind) really funny things to say, none of which would probably help us in procuring the space. So, with the wisdom that comes from years of enduring insufferable people, I just quietly said, “This is not a good day for me to philosophize on how lucky we are when things get tough.”

My friend, who had been watching me closely, picked up the cue right away and steered the conversation to a more practical vein. That was a close call, but we made it through and had a good laugh about it afterwards.

It is a time for bringing in the harvest, but remember to wear gloves out in the fields. Take care of yourselves in the process, don’t take unnecessary risks, and when in doubt keep feasting those Gods. All will be well in time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Ritual, Spirit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.