It’s been an eventful week for me. I finished a book, made a sleeve for my cardigan, and celebrated another kid’s birthday. My oldest turned eighteen over the weekend, the first milestone into adulthood. We made cupcakes and Indian food; her boyfriend is famously afraid of new foods but he agreed to try our homemade butter chicken and actually liked it. For a family of foodies, that’s a big win.

The book I finished, Jason Pargin’s Zoey is Too Drunk for this Dystopia, was also a lot of fun. I’ve been a fan of Jason Pargin since his first book, John Dies at the End, blew my mind with its twisted and original combination of horror and humor. This particular book is the third in a separate series set in the near future. The first in the series, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, is one of my favorite comfort reads. You know you’re a little twisted when your comfort books are full of mechanically enhanced serial killers. Nothing can beat that first book for me, but this is a good follow-up. A bit heavy on the amateur philosophy and lighter on violence and plot twists than the previous two, but this one has some interesting new characters and some great humor. If you love gore and body horror and black humor, I highly recommend Pargin’s novels.

In between projects and events, I’ve actually been feeling a little tired and unsettled. This is the dark side of the holiday season–as the main planner and organizer of my little family, the holidays (along with several birthdays in our extended family) are a wonderful but tiring time for me. I’m naturally more of a studious loner, not the one you’d normally put in charge of fun activities. I think I do a decent job, but it takes a lot out of me.

To keep me going and nourish myself in this busy time, I’ve been trying to settle into the feelings and sensations of fall more, to be more mindful of the seasons changing around me.

It looks like fall has finally come to stay around here, with a few snow flurries to announce itself. I’m trying to give attention to the crisp morning air on my skin and the comforting darkness of fall evenings. I’m trying to be more open to the emotions of the season,like the comfort of family celebrations and the melancholy of the dying year.

Early on in my witchy journey, I learned to associate autumn with water, with emotion and transformation and intuition. All three of these run deep with me, and sometimes I hate how vulnerable and unstable that makes me feel. I suppose this autumn is yet another opportunity to explore that watery side of myself and find more peace and balance around it. Tuning in to the energy around me is probably a good place to start. I hope there’s good energy and beautiful changing scenery around all of you this week at well.

Until next week. –Corvus