Autumnal Equinox, N. hemisphere

Hey, Readers,

Today has been a magical day, that's for sure. Let me just share some highlights, leading up to where I am now.

• I have to work this weekend (7am-2:30pm, used to be 3:30 but our hours got cut), which I wasn't looking forward to, but the weather was so nice this morning I couldn't help but be happy! I walked toward the building in the crisp air and said, "Today is going to be an easy, stress-free wonderful day at work, and then I'll go home and prepare for my celebrations."
• I was assigned to work, by myself, on a nice, quiet, stress-free area. It's easier because the patients are not in their rooms (I work in housekeeping at a health care facility), there are only a certain number, I almost know them all by now, and the techs on that area are very helpful. Right away I knew I wouldn't have to rush around all day.
• When I arrived on the area, a room that was occupied a couple weeks ago when I last cleaned there was now empty. Since this area is long-term care, I knew that most likely meant the patient had passed. I took a moment for their memory.
• Later on in the day, another patient's daughter and son-in-law came to visit with their bouncing baby boy. He was cute as can be, a big smiler, and he really liked my bright yellow "Wet Floor" signs. Loss had been balanced with gain.
• I took a walk outside for the end part of my lunch break, and four hawks swooped overhead and continued to circle around each other over the parking lot. I don't usually see so many in one place. Then I saw a grey cat across the parking lot. It was stepping delicately, but quickly, over some fallen branches. It seemed to notice the hawks but not be too concerned. I recognized then that in the beauty of both the hawks and the sweet cat, there was also the possibility that perhaps the hawks were looking to nip something for their lunch break. Like the cat, if it were smaller.
• All the housekeepers were wearing butterflies. At the lunch table I noticed two of them had butterflies on their scrubs. A moment later I realized I was wearing my hoodie to keep warm, which has a butterfly on the front. And later on I saw another housekeeper, also with butterflies. There are fewer of us on the weekend, so 5-6 people is easier to imagine coincidentally wearing similar things than the usual 11. Still, it seemed like a fitting sign for such a day of balance and transformation.
• Back on my area after lunch, a visitor played accordion for us! Accordion! It was the best thing! He came to see his mother and just happened to bring it. I know polka may be an acquired taste, but it is such a happy sound, and the patients loved it. Far from being annoyed, they were smiling, bopping along with the music. I couldn't stop laughing at how random it seemed, and how happy everyone was.
• After work, I went shopping. I ended up getting a $4 bag of black seedless grapes for $2 because someone had put the sign up wrong and I pointed it out. Really, the sign right behind the cash register says if that happens, the first mis-priced item is free. So I shouldn't even have paid $2, but I didn't mind that so much. I got grapes, apples, and wine for my ritual, gluten free flour for making things for ritual or just for baking later on, and gluten free bread for my regular meals.
• The cashier didn't ask for my ID for the wine. Which is poor work, because you're supposed to ID anyone who looks under 30, or under 40 I think they say now, just to be absolutely sure they aren't singling any people out for looking REALLY young. But the thing is, I DO look really young. I had my ID ready because I knew I looked too young to be buying wine. But she didn't ask for it. That's just bad form. Later, I noticed the receipt actually says "Date Of Birth" under the first wine that was rung up (I bought one for me, and another for my mom as a late birthday gift) and it just said "XX-XX-XXXX KEYED." She didn't ask for my birthday! What did she key in?! So either I look over 30, or the fact that I was so calm about it meant I probably wasn't underage and trying to sneak it, or she thought I was underage and just wanted to be nice. Which is BAD. Do not let underage people buy alcohol. Anyway, I bought alcohol from a store for the first time, so there's that.
• I baked apple cinnamon biscuits! I used a gluten free pancake/baking mix I had and their given recipe for biscuits, and then added ground cinnamon and tiny, tiny chunks of apple to the dough. I didn't put enough in, because you can't really taste either one. They just taste like regular, buttery breakfast biscuits. (Say that three times, fast.)
• My boyfriend told me he's coming home from grad school for a visit one day next week!
• The woman I was tutoring in algebra passed her exam, and the class!
• I managed to get a short video recorded.

Now, obviously bad things happened today, too. It is, after all, a day of balance. But as we are heading into more darkness, the light shall suffice for now. Though that does bring me to RIGHT now...

My brother showed up with a friend so my mom's husband could finish his tattoo, so the house is now even noisier than it would have been. My apple cinnamon biscuits are on a tray, my altar is set up except for the food and wine, I'm texting a couple people, and I'm growing progressively tired. I do still have to work in the morning, after all. So I may have to postpone my celebration, though I don't want to. Today was kind of an all-around celebration, though. I was mindful of the day's significance through every task I took on. So I may have to choose sleep over staying up extra late just to have enough peace to celebrate the way I wanted to. Tomorrow, I work through church so I won't be at the UU service, but I am going directly to my Wiccan friend's house afterward for a Mabon celebration with a small group she runs. When I say small, I don't actually know how many people will be there! We'll just have to see.

Anyway, that was my equinox! In a handful of nutshells. Which are sitting on the altar as an offering.

Blessings~

-C-