Happy Aloha Friday the 13th!
It is, sadly, another somber Friday, with such chaos and atrocity playing out in the world. To say the situation in Israel is complicated would be an understatement. This article tries to simplify it, but I don’t think such a complicated situation can ever be simplified. While I don’t want to dwell on it, I do want to acknowledge it and I think Wendell berry does a good job of capturing a lot of what I have been feeling as of late:
"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
Source:The Peace of Wild Things
SO, it’s Friday the 13th. Enjoy it, because the next occurrence of Friday the 13th will not be for another 11 months, September 2024. Did you know: There can be no more than 3 Friday the 13th in a single year (last time this happened was 2015 and it won’t happen again until 2026) The longest span without one will never be longer than 14 months, but, rest assured, there will always be at least one Friday the 13th in every calendar year.
But why is it unlucky? Well, it wasn’t until the 19th century. It wasn’t until this legendary mash-up that paraskevidekatriaphobia (yup, that’s an irrational fear of Friday the 13th) came into existence. But there is an alternative theory that flips the superstitious and negative connotations associated with this date firmly on face.
According to this article: “If we dig deeper, though, we also find evidence that both Fridays and the number 13 have long been regarded as a harbinger of good fortune. In pagan times, for instance, Friday was believed to have a unique association with the divine feminine. The first clue can actually be found in the weekday name Friday, which is derived from Old English and means “day of Frigg.” Both Queen of Asgard and a powerful sky goddess in Norse mythology, Frigg (also known as Frigga) was associated with love, marriage and motherhood.
“The number 13, meanwhile, has long been regarded as a portentous number by pre-Christian and goddess-worshipping cultures for its link to the number of lunar and menstrual cycles that occur in a calendar year. Fertility was prized in pagan times, and artwork would often draw connections to menstruation, fertility and the phases of the moon.”
So, on this super-ultra-amazingly luck day, start reframing what it might mean for you. It’s a practice that, I know, I can implement in a few aspects of my life. As you are doing so, enjoy the Top 10 Paul Simon songs!
