In the wild you don’t see old animals
because as soon as they age,
animals die.
If they get sick or slow down,
something stronger kills them.
Animals aren’t meant to get old.
Our culture has made death something wrong.
Old animals should be an unnatural exception.
Friday, 2 October 2026
Epicurus
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not
Tori Amos
Years go by, will I still be waitingFor somebody else to understandYears go by, if I'm stripped of my beautyAnd the orange clouds raining in my headYears go by, will I choke on my tears'Til, finally there is nothing left
Billy Joel
He says, "Son can you play me a memory?I'm not really sure how it goesBut it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it completeWhen I wore a younger man's clothes"
Marilyn
Men grow coldAs girls grow oldAnd we all lose our charms in the end
Bucks Fizz
Youth,
it passes,
while age is collected
Jesus
prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him:
I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God,
or else a madman
or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God,
but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us.
He did not intend to
Make your own Bible
Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet
If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or niaive in worldly matters,
don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity.
If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it.
You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals.
Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other
Research suggests that up to 40% of our day is spent acting out existing habits rather than making new decisions.
From sleep to personal hygiene to diet and exercise.
Some of our habits serve us well.
Others can be more complicating.
If you want to change a habit, behavioural scientists suggests starting small. Make one minor adjustment over time, it creates a domino effect that helps us make bigger chances down the line.
Make a radical change and you've set yourself up for failure.
The principle of the domino effect is a double-edged sword. It can help us build healthy habits but it can lead to destructive tendencies as well. One small misstep becomes one bad habit.
Of course, none of us is perfect and so much is out of our control.
All you can do is make the best choices available to you and hope they don't come back to bite you.
Thursday, 1 October 2026
Night in the Lonesome October
The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere --
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
October again
https://vassago-vassago.blogspot.com/2010/04/ulalume.html
Ulalume
October
Night in the lonesome October
Edgar Allen Poe
October
October
My ornaments are fruits; my garments leaves,
Woven like cloth of gold, and crimson dyed;
I do no boast the harvesting of sheaves,
O'er orchards and o'er vineyards I preside.
Though on the frigid Scorpion I ride,
The dreamy air is full, and overflows
With tender memories of the summer-tide,
And mingled voices of the doves and crows.
Ulalume
Edgar Allan Poe
The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere --
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir: --
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.
Here once, through an alley Titanic,
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul --
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
There were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll --
As the lavas that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek,
In the ultimate climes of the Pole --
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the Boreal Pole.
Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere --
Our memories were treacherous and sere;
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year --
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)
We noted not the dim lake of Auber,
(Though once we had journeyed down here)
We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.
And now, as the night was senescent,
And star-dials pointed to morn --
As the star-dials hinted of morn --
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn --
Astarte's bediamonded crescent,
Distinct with its duplicate horn.
And I said -- "She is warmer than Dian:
She rolls through an ether of sighs --
She revels in a region of sighs.
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion,
To point us the path to the skies --
To the Lethean peace of the skies --
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
To shine on us with her bright eyes --
Come up, through the lair of the Lion,
With love in her luminous eyes."
But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
Said -- "Sadly this star I mistrust --
Her pallor I strangely mistrust --
Ah, hasten! -- ah, let us not linger!
Ah, fly! -- let us fly! -- for we must."
In terror she spoke; letting sink her
Wings till they trailed in the dust --
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
Plumes till they trailed in the dust --
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.
I replied -- "This is nothing but dreaming.
Let us on, by this tremulous light!
Let us bathe in this crystalline light!
Its Sybillic splendor is beaming
With Hope and in Beauty to-night --
See! -- it flickers up the sky through the night!
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
And be sure it will lead us aright --
We safely may trust to a gleaming
That cannot but guide us aright,
Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."
Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
And tempted her out of her gloom --
And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista --
But were stopped by the door of a tomb --
By the door of a legended tomb: --
And I said -- "What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?"
She replied -- "Ulalume -- Ulalume --
'T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere --
As the leaves that were withering and sere --
And I cried -- "It was surely October
On _this_ very night of last year,
That I journeyed -- I journeyed down here! --
That I brought a dread burden down here --
On this night, of all nights in the year,
Ah, what demon has tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber --
This misty mid region of Weir: --
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber --
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."
Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.
Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.
Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.
Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees
October
In the ancient Roman calendar, October was the name of the eighth month of the year. Its name comes from octo, the Latin word for “eight.” When the Romans converted to a 12-month calendar, they tried to rename this month after various Roman emperors, but October's name stuck
October's birthstones are the tourmaline and opal.
Its birth flower is the calendula.
The zodiac signs are Libra (until October 22) and Scorpio (from October 23 onward)
October
I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring.
There is no season as vibrant as fall. The sky, the leaves, and the landscape together create a symphony of colors. When you appreciate the things around you, you will find that you already have the most precious things in the world. A grateful heart will guide you to discover more wonders in life.
October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen.
In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October… – no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.
Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, we have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!
October, here’s to you. Here’s to the heady aroma of the frost-kissed apples, the winey smell of ripened grapes, the wild-as-the-wind smell of hickory nuts, and the nostalgic whiff of that first wood smoke.
October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting.
October is its sunset sky;
November the later twilight.
October arrives in a swirl of fragrant blue leaf smoke, the sweetness of slightly frosted MacIntosh apples, and little hard acorns falling.
There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings as now in October.
things to love about October
Crystal clear sky
Fallen leaves
Horror movies
Pumpkin spice latte
Halloween
Trick or Treat
Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Imagine that you were on the threshold of this fairytale, sometime billions of years ago when everything was created.
And you were able to choose whether you wanted to be born to a life on this planet at some point.
You wouldn’t know when you were going to be born, nor how long you’d live for, but at any event it wouldn’t be more than a few years.
All you’d know was that, if you chose to come into the world at some point, you’d also have to leave it again one day and go away from everything.
This might cause you a good deal of grief, as lots of people think that life in the great fairytale is so wonderful that the mere thought of it ending can bring tears to their eyes.
Things can be so nice here that it’s terribly painful to think that at some point the days will run out.
What would you have chosen, if there had been some higher power that had gave you the choice?
Perhaps we can imagine some sort of cosmic fairy in this great, strange fairytale.
Would you have chosen to live a life on earth at some point, whether short or long, in a hundred thousand or a hundred million years?
Or would you have refused to join in the game because you didn’t like the rules?
Would I have elected to live a life on earth in the firm knowledge that I’d suddenly be torn away from it, and perhaps in the middle of intoxicating happiness?
If I’d chosen never to set foot inside the great fairytale, I’d never have known what I’ve lost.
Sometimes it’s worse for human beings to lose something dear to us than never to have had it at all
The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh On the last day of September
The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh,The ally-ally-oh, the ally-ally-oh.Oh, the big ship sails on the ally-ally-ohOn the last day of SeptemberAlly ally oh! Ally oh!On the last day of September
The captain said it will never, never do,Never, never do, never, never do.The captain said it will never, never doOn the last day of SeptemberAlly ally oh! Ally oh!On the last day of September
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,The bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea.The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,On the last day of SeptemberAlly ally oh! Ally oh!On the last day of September
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea,The deep blue sea, the deep blue sea.We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea,On the last day of SeptemberAlly ally oh! Ally oh!On the last day of September
Monday, 28 September 2026
Sunday, 27 September 2026
Remember two things:
i. that everything has always been the same,
and keeps recurring,
and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred years or two hundred,
or in an infinite period;
ii. that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing.
The present is all that they can give up,
since that is all you have,
and what you do not have you cannot lose
Saturday, 26 September 2026
Full Moon - The Harvest Moon
Corn Moon or Harvest Moon (because it is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox)
It features the "Harvest Moon effect," where moonrise happens much closer to sunset than usual, providing extra evening moonlight
September's full moon is special because it is traditionally known as the Harvest Moon, meaning it is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox
Because it hangs low on the horizon, it often appears large, bright, and glowing with an orange or reddish hue
The Harvest Moon appears from September
The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time,
One thing that sets the Harvest Moon apart from other full Moon names is that it’s not associated with a specific month, as the others are.
Instead, the Harvest Moon relates to the timing of the autumnal equinox (September 23), with the full Moon that occurs nearest to the equinox being the one to take on the name “Harvest Moon.”
This means that the Harvest Moon can occur in either September or October, depending on how the lunar cycle lines up with the Gregorian calendar.
The Harvest Moon does typically occur in September, taking the place of the full Corn Moon.
However, it occasionally lands in October instead, replacing the full Hunter’s Moon.
For several evenings, the moonrise comes soon after sunset. This results in an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, which was a traditional aid to farmers and crews harvesting their summer-grown crops. Hence, it’s called the “Harvest” Moon!
- Usually, throughout the year, the Moon rises an average of about 50 minutes later each day.
- But for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the northern USA, and only 10 to 20 minutes later farther north in Canada and Europe.
Additionally, the Harvest Moon rises at sunset and then will rise very near sunset for several nights in a row because the difference is at a yearly minimum. It may almost seem as if there are full Moons multiple nights in a row!
While September’s full Moon is usually known as the Harvest Moon, if October’s full Moon happens to occur closer to the equinox than September’s, it takes on the name “Harvest Moon” instead. In this case, September’s full Moon is referred to as the Corn Moon.
This time of year—late summer into early fall—corresponds with the time of harvesting corn in much of the northern United States. For this reason, a number of Native American peoples traditionally used some variation of the name “Corn Moon” to refer to the Moon of either August or September. Examples include Corn Maker Moon (Western Abenaki) and Corn Harvest Moon (Dakota).
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