Entry for Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - All Saints Day

Welcome to all Saints Day.  You will remember it from yesterday's blog.  The early church created this day to give honor to all the saints in heaven and to surplant the pagan holiday of Samhain.  Interestingly enough, the Mexican Day of the Dead used to be at this time of year as well, but was moved to April.  I don't remember why (if I ever knew) perhaps its like daylight savings time, more sunlit hours.  And don't we all want to celebrate the dead in the light of day rather than at night?

I spent many hours yesterday afternoon reading the blogs of two gentlemen that have recently been highlighted in Yahoo as being "Interesting".  One is a retired man who spends his time travelling and writing about it.  The interesting thing is that his writing is all in a form of free flowing poetry (not the rhyming type).  The cadence of his poetry has a meditative quality to it that is quite delightful.  I even commented on one of his entries (something I almost never do) that reading his blog was "like a walking meditation".  You feel like you are walking the streets of Williamsburg, or where ever he is along side taking it all in.  If you too would like to experience his work, check out this link:

http://360.yahoo.com/profile-hh0ZOVoldKscPmq2elzSSlY-

The second *interesting* blog is written by an American Zen Buddist Priest.  He is 59, was a psychotherapist, was shot in the head in Vietnam and has (by his own admission) early-stage Alzeimer's disease.  There is a deep inner peace in this man's writings that you might want to check out as well.  The link is: http://360.yahoo.com/profile-8UCds6EzbqKTTvGuFj8lDV.O

After reading these blogs yesterday and noticing that they each have a distinctive voice in their writings, I began thinking about my own writings.  Where is my voice?  As I look back through my entries I seem to jump around from topic to topic.  Do I have a consistent voice?  Can one even tell on their own writing?  Does it even matter?  Perhaps I'm just still in the "finding my voice" place of transition from my working world to my retirement world.

On a side note, I was awakened sometime after 2:00 a.m. this morning by two loud raps on the wall (or the door).  I saw or heard nothing more.  This has happened to me before when someone/something has been trying to get my attention.  We'll have to see what happens next.