Happy Samhain Everyone

I had a long and inspirational post all thought up while milking the goats tonight, but I can't remember any of it now. Typical me, I suppose.

But nevertheless, I would like to wish all of my readers a happy October 31st. Whether you celebrate this day as Halloween, Reformation Day, Hallow's, someone's birthday, or as Samhain, I hope you have a good one. 

I celebrate this day as Samhain (pronounced "Sow-an"). An ancient Celtic tradition, this day was spent celebrating a successful harvest year with friends and family. It was a happy festival full of dancing, laughter, music, food, and gratefulness. And so, keeping with my Irish/Scottish heritage, I too celebrate this day. It is a quiet day for me, but one filled with thinking, and re-focusing. All that is left now is to look forward in life. To take the next steps and dream still more. I have given this year all I had to give, and now I have a moment to sit back and reflect... And dream for more. This harvest year saw broilers, my first cow, my first flock of sheep. It saw sunrises, and sunsets. It saw my tears and my laughter. It saw friends gained, and friends lost. Is a harvest merely something of food, or can it be of something more? Can there be a harvest of dreams, of new character, of new experiences? I hope so, because I've seen that kind of harvest in myself. I have loved this year, but I do not cling to it. This is the end of the year for the Celts and for me. October 31st is the Celtic New Year; it is time to turn the page and see what is written there. Or if nothing is written, then it's time for us to find a pen and write something with our own hand. Being a dreamer, I think I will be the one to do the writing on my page. It suits me that way. The next harvest year will begin next spring and I quiver as I think what it may hold in it's tendril, green hands. More sheep, perhaps? A farm collie named Dulcie? Hogs? My own land and house? Oh yes please, someone sign me up for all of that. I've had a harvest of dreams this year, and now it is time to sow the seeds for next year's crop of hopes and fantasies. I am a stubborn, hard headed slip of a girl, but in all honesty, that's the only way I've managed to do the things I've done. When you want something, you have to just hunker down and do it. Never mind those people who shake their head and say that you're being unrealistic and unwise. How are they to know your heart? How are they to know that your dreams are what keep you going? How can they know what it feels like to seek something and then finally have it after a seemingly endless wait? Samhain is a day of celebrating that we've come this far and succeeded in what we have done this year. And guess what! Samhain is coming again next year! We have another chance at reaching our goals and desires, and then next October 31st we can sit back and reflect... And consider what we've done, and what there is still to do. There is so much to life. And I love it that way...

Happy Samhain everyone. I leave you now with this song that has helped me put words on this page tonight, and often keeps me company.

Dead Man's Will, by 'Iron and Wine'.