The title sounds so ominous!

As we in the United States once again complain about having to change the clocks, this time back an hour which is easier to adjust to than “springing forward” in March, here is a great article about time and work from an Indigenous perspective. Because changing the clocks twice a year is all about capitalism, of course.

James and I celebrate the Wheel of the Year and for the last few days we have been celebrating Samhain. Contrary to what some may think, this is not the same as Halloween, nor does it last for just one day. It is a season, from now until Winter Solstice, and the festival for celebrating is from October 31st through November 2nd. Though there is much lost to the murkiness of time and colonialism, so those who celebrate have the room to make of the holiday what they will.

For James and I, Samhain marks the beginning of the dark season. Even though the clocks were set back today, very soon I will be bike commuting to work both ways in the dark or near dark. The trees are dropping their leaves and soon will be bare bones. The color gradually leaves the world to become monochromatic. It used to be I could depend on brilliant blue skies, but increasingly with climate change, these months have become cloudier, denying relief from the monochrome.

The dark season is a time of rest and dreaming. Aside from a few more outdoor tasks I need to do like raking leaves off the sidewalk, my work in the garden is done. Now it is my turn to withdraw, bury myself as it were, in the dark like a seed. It is a time to plant intentions that I hope will sprout and grow strong when light and warmth return.

It is also a time for roots, for remembering ancestors—blood ancestors, spiritual ancestors, and more-than-human ancestors. So it was truly wonderful Thursday night at sangha that we did the Five Earth Touchings. Buddhism always honors ancestors, but Samhain is not the particular time of year for Buddhist ancestor ceremonies. So it was a happy coincidence. The prostrations that accompany the Five Earth Touchings were especially moving. I felt grounded, solid, full, and content at their completion. I will make sure this becomes part of Samhain every year.

In addition, James and I like to recall and honor family who have died by eating food in remembrance of them. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Lit Hub posted a lovely article about how food invokes memories of loved ones. Our celebration generally involves making a meal or dish that was a favorite of someone, or that reminds us of them. Last year we had cinnamon toast in remembrance of my Granny who always made it for me and my sister when she babysat us. It wasn’t quite the same since we didn’t slather it in butter, but the spirit of it was there.

This year James made a kugel. His family makes kugel with wide, flat egg noodles, a creamy custard-like “sauce,” and raisins. There has to be raisins. James had to turn out a vegan version. Sadly, there are no vegan-style “egg” noodles so we had to go with fettuccine noodles instead. For the creamy custard “sauce,” he made sunflower seed-based cream. For something like this cashews are the standard choice in vegan recipes, but we don’t buy cashews because the company our food co-op gets organic cashews from cannot confirm that all of their nuts are processed on machines and not by people who might be suffering from burns and skin rashes due to the toxic oils in cashew shells. Nor can they confirm that people were paid a fair wage. So we don’t buy cashews. We have used hazelnuts in the past as well as almonds, but the price of organic nuts these days has increased astronomically and we only buy them as a treat if they are on sale, which they were not when we went grocery shopping. So we use sunflower seeds, which are still inexpensive and do the job just fine.

It all came out great! When James took the first bite he said it tasted just like he remembered it should. His aunt always used to make kugel for holiday gatherings. Pre-vegan days I got to enjoy her kugel at a Passover dinner. So today we remembered Auntie Margo and a few other of James’s kin who have passed. It’s good to remember.

In bookish things, Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera won the Ursula Le Guin Prize. He made a wonderful acceptance speech (skip to minute 7 to get to his speech) which made me like him even more. I have read both The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall and liked them both. They are strange and different and all about power and subverting power, time, memory, and creating worlds. Rakesfall is not an easy book to read and I like that Chandrasekera makes no apologies for it. I like that he demands the reader do some work in the mutual creation that is fiction. And I like that his books are truly different from so much of what is published these days. I am so very tired of the usual sorts of fantasy and science fiction that treads the same plots with only slight shifts in things like gender.

Rakesfall is the only one of the Le Guin shortlist I have read, but I have several of them on my TBR, in particular Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson and The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy. Hopefully I will be able to at least get to these before the next prize list is up in 2026. If you are a reader, you know how it goes.

A large chunk of my day today was taken up by chores and the final Beloved Community Circle cohort training. The trainings have been great and I have learned quite a lot about creating a very specific kind of community. It’s been a joy taking what I have learned back to my own Circle and sharing it with them. We are working towards becoming more deliberate in getting to know one another well and also creating practices around decision making, communication, and conflict resolution. It is work, but it is rewarding work.

So that’s it for today. Rest, dream deeply, and plant the seeds of your aspirations.

Where There is Love, Playing for Change