Celebration day, come on

Today is a big day for celebrations. It's Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so that means six more weeks of winter, as if you couldn't already guess. I wonder if anyone checked the woolly caterpillar's middle stripe before winter set in.

It's also Ayn Rand's birthday, Ayn Rand of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged fame. If you've not read the books, you should. Yes, they're big and they are also meaty, but they're worth the effort. If you prefer the short version, check out the movie with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. I think the book is better, but I came to the book through the movie.

Today is my best friend Connie's 55th birthday. She is officially a senior citizen, and I'm not far behind, just 15 more days until I hit the double nickel, too. Connie and I have known each other for nearly 40 years and we're still best friends. Her children call me Aunt Jackie and I've been there for some of the big moments, and even designed and made Dawn's senior prom dress. She still has it.

Today is also Imbolc, the festival of lights, the first Sabbat of the pagan calendar. I know some people celebrated it yesterday, but I've always celebrated it on the 2nd and not the first. Imbolc celebrates the return of light and warmth and has been co-opted by Catholics as Candlemas and Irish Catholics by St. Brigid's Day. Everyone likes to get in on the celebration since it is at this time we are halfway through winter. Winter ends technically on March 21st, and that will be the celebration of Ostara and the first equinox, that moment in the year when the day and night are in balance.

The year wears on no matter how we seek to stop its movement for an hour or a day and, although it seems as though some hours are longer than others, it's perception and not fact. Gram always told me to stop wishing my life away because there would come a day when time would flash by too fast to catch it. She was right. It seems only yesterday that I was looking forward to the holiday season and now spring is nearly upon me. The years are becoming like a juggernaut rolling away faster and faster like the pages on a calendar in the movies. I don't know if I'm sad about that or if I'm too busy to worry about it, except in moments like these. The one thing I have always counted on is change, and the movement of time, as seen by human eyes, is nothing but change from one second to the next. All I can do is appreciate this moment and the next moment and the ones that follow and be glad for friends like Connie and looking forward to reading writers like Ayn Rand, Terry Pratchett and whoever shows up in the boxes Authorlink sends me to review. Good thing I enjoy change.

That is all. Disperse.