b.rox

I drew these candles and asked Persephone to color them red with yellow flames. She understood my instructions perfectly, but it seems she has a mind of her own. Happy Candlemas!

Warning: What follows is not a well-researched authoritative statement. It’s unfettered speculation. Take it with a grain of salt. The Oldest Holiday Surely the winter solstice must be the oldest holiday, or one of the oldest. Early humans noticed that the days would get shorter and longer, and it’s fairly easy to determine the solstice [...]

A bit discombobulated and disconnected for this recent holiday. Perhaps that’s because I was traveling just before — the POD Network traditionally has their conference at the end of October, and this one was combined with the annual conference of the HBCU Faculty Development Network, and we mustered our biggest contingent (four) ever. Wouldn’t have [...]

Equinox It’s a precise moment that happens twice a year, when the equatorial plane of the earth intersects the center of the sun. That’s the equinox. This year it came at 4:04 AM (local time) on the morning of Friday, September 23rd. For this moment only, the earth’s axis was not tilted one way or [...]

Lammas is rapidly approaching. It was last year at Lammas that I began making an effort to observe each holiday in the Wheel of the Year with my family. Now that we’ve seen one full revolution of the wheel, I’m taking stock and reflecting on what it means. It’s my understanding that the Wheel of [...]

Here’s a mix to enliven your Fourth of July.

Tuesday was the Summer Solstice. I got up super early (4AM by my body clock, which was still in the Central Time Zone) and headed down to the beach. It was still pretty dark, but even at that early hour the eastern sky held a faint glow which grew stronger slowly, slowly, as I watched [...]

Dear Persephone, I meant to take notes on all the crazy things you’ve said over the last few weeks. But time got away from me. I remember you said “Trust me!” when we were playing Alphabet Farm. I wrote it down, because it seemed remarkable, but now I can’t remember anything more about it, except [...]

I just learned Gil Scott-Heron died Friday. Today is Memorial Day. Here’s a video.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there — including my mom, my mother-in-law, my baby-mama, and of course the Great Mother: Mama Earth. I love you all. Forgive us, mothers, for we know not what we do.

See what you missed? Not to mention the maypole. This was our second May Day party. I enjoyed last year’s so much that I wrote, “I’m already imagining what it might be like to do it again next year.” So, boom, now it’s a tradition. In fact our celebration last year represented our first observance [...]

Twenty-five years ago tonight, I was at a bonfire in northern Sweden. I was astounded by the size of the thing — like a house burning. It may not look like night in these photos, but remember that we were very near the arctic circle. By late June it hardly got dark at all. Note [...]

So we’ve had Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Hellacious Saturday, Resurrection Sunday. Now what about today? “Easter Monday” certainly doesn’t cut it. How about Wet Monday — also known as Dyngus Day? Sounds like Central and Eastern Europe is the place to be: Dyngus Day or Wet Monday (Polish Śmigus-Dyngus or lany poniedziałek) is the name [...]

Some people say it’s irreligious to celebrate Hellacious Saturday. I say they don’t know church doctrine very well. Here’s what we’re having today: horseradish bacon deviled eggs, deviled ham, and devil’s food cake — with a little Belzebuth blond ale to wash it down. And here’s some music to enjoy while we feast. Happy holy [...]

Or would that be Mardi Mince? I never completely recovered from the cold I caught in late January. I only missed one day of work, and I felt well enough that my general routine was not disrupted, but I could not quite kick that last stage. I kept coughing up little bits of phlegm, but [...]

I imagine anyone reading this post today will be from outside New Orleans. Here it’s Mardi Gras, and people have other things to do. So for all those people in the rest of America, where it’s just another Tuesday, I offer the following mix for your amusement. My boss challenged me to whip up an [...]

Misery loves company, and this year I’ve got plenty. To recap ever-so-briefly: Over the last few decades, all the big parades have been consolidated onto what’s now known as the “traditional uptown route” — except one, the biggest of ‘em all, the gaudy spectacle known as Endymion. It’s the one time the festive spirit of [...]

The Thursday before Mardi Gras is one of my favorite times to catch some parades. This year we had a multiplicity of invitations Thursday from a variety of friends who live in the vicinity of the uptown parade route. With so much hospitality on offer it was a tough call, but we eventually made our [...]