It's cold here today. I actually can see and feel the season moving. The moon is waning and although the sun is shining, I still feel that "going" within, the urge to gather my harvest and horde it for the winter. 

 It is interesting to me how strong this feeling is this year. I am a city woman and have never actual gone into fields to harvest.  However, I am strongly feeling as if I had and now I want to "pull my head" into my shell and sleep the cold winter through.

 Because I am a city woman and I have to work to pay for my livelihood, I won't actually go hibernate. I'll go to work and then rest and make my crafts and go within on the weekends. I'm glad to see that solitude doesn't feel like a punishment any more.

 I am starting to really enjoy the fact that I am by myself. No family to demand more than I can give. I'm no longer lonely, I am just alone. What a difference a few words make. I am leavings the demands of my job at work.

 Several years ago I would be moaning and crying that I was "lonely", that I had no man to spend time with or to share my thoughts.  Now I see that it really doesn't matter, I enjoy my solitude.

I think that becoming a 3rd degree priestess has made the change. I am doing what I think the elder priestesses of the past would have done. I feel as if I have done this before.

It's a time of going within, studying new practices and perfecting the practices already known. It's a time of creation and joy of solitude.  

Today I will go out on my little patio and start preparing my plants for winter. Though we don't get snow where I live, it does get really cold. In the winter, sometimes there is frost in the mornings and there may be ice on the roads that are always in the shadows of the sun. So I will prune my plants, keep watch as the season gets colder and if necessary, I will bring my plants in.

I'll take done my window fan and close the windows. I'll put away the summer things in my house and bring out the autumn and Samhain items for my altar.

I love Samhain. I love the mystical feelings I get at this time. I love setting up an altar to honor the dead and of those who left this world this year. I even love to dress up and use the time to become someone I usually am not.

May all of you have a blessed weekend and may the Goddess bring you joy and a feeling of solitude.