what in Samhein is going on?

I have always had trouble sleeping. I have more trouble during times like All Soul's Day (tomorrow) or Halloween (yesterday). But I have been making a conscious decision to go to bed early. Case in point: yesterday I drove all through my mom's neighborhood, then through my neighborhood and in the streets between the two so my little punk rock girl, Tigrette, could skip up and down the streets for candy and toys. We didn't stay up past 10 last night because I knew sleep was an issue.

I woke up this morning fine, I thought, but by 9:30 I was out of it, couldn't concentrate, and couldn't move around enough to rouse myself. I slept great, I thought, tho I had some really intense dreams - but now I feel like I didn't sleep all night, like I was in conversation or working all night.

Today is Samhein, the Celtic tradition for marking one of two doorways into other worlds. It's a time when the veil thins, when darkness is brought to the front. A lot of what we practice today shows within the holiday - apples, new beginnings, transformation, winter's beginning, remembering the dead. It's this whole time that I've always enjoyed. I tell everyone, September to January is my favorite time - and it's my most busy, most productive. But it challenges me as it strengthens me. I am more sensitive.

Sweetly, the last time Cliffy came by the house she was kind enough to wash my dishes and throw out my trash before I got there. Without knowing, on Monday, I looked at my trash (which I should have thrown the day before) and thought "I have to throw that so Cliffy doesn't have to take my trash out." An hour later, Cliffy calls and she asks me if she can come over.

When I get to the house that night she says "I was going to wash your dishes" and I surprised her by saying I'd taken the trash out so she wouldn't have to. She freaked because I didn't know she was coming over. But I did. Not consciously but somewhere I did know.

There's a lot of this going on.