Preparing for Halloween

 

 

Here is how our front porch looked when decorated for Halloween Day.  
We decorated our home in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2017.  
Notice the five spherical white spectral (ghostly) visitors coming to "trick or treat" at our front door.    

"To all the ancient ones from their houses, the Old Ones from above and below. In this time the Gods of the Earth touch our feet, bare upon the ground. Spirits of the Air whisper in our hair and chill our bodies,  and from the dark portions watch and wait the Faery Folk that they may join the circle and leave their track upon the ground. It is the time of the waning year. Winter is upon us. The corn is golden in the winnow heaps. Rains will soon wash sleep into the life-bringing Earth. We are not without fear, we are not without sorrow...Before us are all the signs of Death: the ear of corn is no more green and life is not in it. The Earth is cold and no more will grasses spring jubilant. The Sun but glances upon his sister, the earth..... It is so....Even now....But here also are the signs of life, the eternal promise given to our people. In the death of the corn there is the seed--which is both food for the season of Death and the Beacon which will signal green-growing time and life returning. In the cold of the Earth there is but sleep wherein She will awaken refreshed and renewed, her journey into the Dark Lands ended. And where the Sun journeys he gains new vigor and potency; that in the spring, his blessings shall come ever young!"
-  Two Samhain Rituals, Compost Coveners, 1980 

  

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.
Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet. 
Stay we on the paths we know 
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."
-  Akasha, Samhain Ritual  

Samhain

Halloween,

The Day of the Dead

 

October: Poems

Quotes

Lore

  

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared from 1998-2017. 
Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 

We now (2020) live in Vancouver, Washington.  

Father's Day

Michael James Garofalo (1/10/1916-4/2/1997)

My father, Michael James Garofalo, died on April 2nd, around 3 am in 1997.

He had a series of strokes, beginning in 1992, and then, due to complications from diabetes, increasing dementia, old age, inactivity, overeating, a broken hip from a fall, and congestive heart failure ... all led to his death.

In his youth, he was always strong, active, hard working, diligent, and demanding.
He built himself the three houses in which he lived, in starting in 1945.
He and my mom, June, raised three sons.
When he retired, at 62, he was the Chief Piping Engineer at the Fluor Corporation.

He was a Catholic believer. His outlook was conservative, Republican. He worked with all white men in a non-union workplace. He did not think well of people of other races and creeds. He thought all poor people were just lazy and stupid. Compassion and kindness were not high on his list of virtues. He also had a low opinion of women rights. His income was sufficient to provide for us when growing up.

I'd say he was an untreated manic-depressive. After he was 65, he resisted all my many recommendations to consult with better physicians or a counselor. He could be quite stubborn at times with not complying with medical recommendations. 

He paid to send me to Catholic Schools, 1st to 12 grade. I was indoctrinated properly by nuns and priests. It was just "get good grades, study, obey, do what we say" everyday. 

He liked to travel in the Western Regions and Deserts: Southern California, Nevada, Mexico, Utah, Arizona. 

For more Information about my Dad.

He did not read very much. Listened to sports on the radio and right wing talk a lot. Not conversant much with modern thought, and viewed the 1960's changes a low class sinful rot. He spoke in stereotypes and racial slurs a lot. His Italian identity, was touted a lot. Also, he enjoyed bossing others around a lot.

After he retired, he mellowed a bit, and he was really a good grandfather with our two children.

My wife and I cared for him every day, he lived in a Granny Flat apartment next door. We helped him daily from 1993 to 1997. 

Frankly, for me, he was hard to love or like at times very much. 

I thank him for paying the way in my youth, providing for decent room and board, a good education, a safe home, and providing me with a useful inheritance from him from his final estate. 

I'd say he was a decent father, a good provider, but a friend to few. 

Yes, I loved my Dad - with Reservations.

Face to Face with What You Are

"You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
Loving beauty, you caress the bloom;
Soon enough, you'll sweep petals from the floor.
Terrible to love the lovely so,
To count your own years, to say "I'm old,"
To see a flower half-buried in leaves
And come face to face with what you are."
-  Han Shan, circa 630 CE 
Translated by Peter Stambler, Cold Mountain Buddhas


"The pathos of death is this, that when the days of one's life are ended, those days that were so crowded with business and felt so heavy in their passing, what remains of one in memory should usually be so slight a thing.  The phantom of an attitude, the echo of a certain mode of thought, a few pages of print, some invention, or some victory we gained in a brief critical hours, are all that can survive the best of us.  It is as if the whole of a man's significance had now shrunk into a mere musical note or phrase, suggestive of his singularity─happy are those whose singularity gives a note so clear as to be victorious over the inevitable pity of such a diminution and abridgment."
-  William James, A Memorial Address for Ralph Waldo Emerson

Death: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

The Permanence of Impermanence

Cherry trees will blossom every year;
But I'll disappear for good,
One of these days.
- Philip Whalen, 1923 -June 26, 2002
Zen priest, Abbot of San Francisco Hartfort Street Zen Center
Associated with West Coast Beat poets


Listen,
all creeping things -
the bell of transience.
- Issa

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
- Isaac Asimov

Death and Dying

Funerals

Karen and I attended a funeral service last Friday night. A young woman, Chandes Goodin, was killed in a recent automobile accident. She died on her 24th birthday.

The funeral services were traditional Christian rituals, preaching, and songs. I hope their faith helped them in this hard time of shock and sadness. A somber scene.  Many expressions of the hope that they will all meet again in heaven. A tender, sincere, fit and proper remembrance ceremony for Chandes and her family.

We know the family through Kathy and Davis Goodin. They run the wonderful Goodin Nursery on 99W and Flores - a half mile from our home. Karen and Kathy are good friends.

Someday a death will leave you speechless - including your own. 

Death and Dying - Quotations and Thoughts

"Fear no more the heat o' th' sun
Nor the furious winters' rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust."
- Shakespeare


"Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold."
- William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis