Tuesday Musing

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer."

  Helen Hunt Jackson

September, the ninth month of the Gregorian calendar and the first month of Autumn.  The unofficial end of summer has come. In just a short time, the official end will be upon us. As I sit back and sip my morning coffee, I find myself pondering all the changes that have come over my life this summer--retirement, illness, the steady climb back to health, the worry and strain of unknowing, the steady deterioration of hubby's health.  Oh, my, so much in such a short time.  So, why am I feeling so restless?  September  should be  the time we begin preparing to go within as the time of darkness fast approaches.  Why am I looking for more?  Why don't I feel content? I'm wanting to enroll in a course, to learn more about my ancestors....I'm wanting so much that my mind is a jumble at the present time, and I keep looking for things that will hold my interest. I really don't know what I want to do. A restlessness has set in.

A new family moved upstairs over the weekend. That apartment has been empty for months.  Hubby and I think the rent may have been too high.  See, each time someone moves, the landlord is able to raise the rent a little higher.   Fortunately for us, the person before us in our apartment lived here over 15 years so it was pretty well stabilized. Our new neighbors seem to be very quiet.  Even on moving day they were much more quiet than the animals that lived there previously.

One thing I am finding hard to understand, though. Each apartment in this building has one of those new powerful toilets that flush so loud that every apartment within hearing distance knows everyone else's business. For example, I always knew when the old family were heading off to bed or when they rose in the morning, because one of the first and last things people before and after sleep is use the toilet. It used to make me self-conscious, but I've grown used to it now. The point is, I've yet to hear the upstairs toilet flush. What's up?  Do they not need to relieve themselves?  If so, I would love a tip to help make it through the night.  I am really confused about this one. Hubby jokingly says I focus on the strangest things. I guess he is right.

Yesterday we had macaroni salad, watercress and cucumber salad, and ribs grilled on my George Foreman. For dessert we had slices of watermelon. I'd really wanted a cake, but decided against it.  Must really begin taking off these pounds. And, I, aside from my cooking, spent the entire day watching a Ghost Whisperer marathon. It has been quite awhile since I have seen that show.

September is the month that is sacred to Persephone and  the Norse god of thunder, Thor. The sun dips lower in the sky, and the evenings are cooling down.  In the Northern sky, the Big Dipper hangs low. The birthstone of this month is the sapphire, often thought to possess magical powers. According to an ancient superstition....

A maiden born when autumn leaves

Are rustling in September's breeze 

A sapphire on her brow should bind —

'Twill cure diseases of the mind."

We enter the month in the astrological sign of Virgo. The flower for this month is the Aster. In Latin, its name means star. According to a beautiful old Greek myth, there was a time when the gods lived on earth amongst the humans during a golden age when it was a peaceful place to live. But, then, humans became greedy and began to fight with each other, and the gods abandoned the earth. Astraea, the star maiden, the virgin goddess who represented justice and innocence, was the last to leave, and when she departed, she became the constellation of Virgo, the virgin. It is said that when she gazed down upon the earth, she wept because she saw no stars there...and  as her grieving tears fell to earth, they turned into asters.

"The birds laugh loud and long together
When Fashion's followers speed away
At the first cool breath of autumn weather.
Why, this is the time, cry the birds, to stay!
When the deep calm sea and the deep sky over
Both look their passion through sun-kissed space,
As a blue-eyed maid and her blue-eyed lover
Might each gaze into the other's face."

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The End of Summer-