So, I found this new trend online that I decided to try. "Upload a photo of yourself into ChatGPT, and ask it to put you somewhere you absolutely don't belong." Here's the two I got. 🤣 Personally, I'd be an absolute disaster in that Penguin Restaurant, but I feel like the Velociraptor Tea Party would be lit!

One day, I'll be forgotten By all who knew my name; I'll fade, as all things evanesce - But certain things remain. Like the enduring indent Upon a well-worn chair; The desire paths I've made, The vestige I was there. Like unmarked keys with no known lock, The way I wield a pen; Words I've left in minds and margins Echoing again. Like stubborn seeds I sowed in spring That bloom when I am gone; A quiet phrase I used to speak, Perhaps a favorite song. For time may steal the face and form, And fragments fall away; But piece by piece, the world retains The soul that chose to stay.

Here's a fun bit of timing: this Community Connect falls just three days ahead of Mabon, and the Autumn Equinox this year - the exact moment the year holds light and dark in equal balance, right before it tips toward the darker half. That moment, September 22nd, also happens to be my own birthday. I'm choosing to take that as a sign rather than a coincidence, and I'd like to mark it - not with a birthday party (please, no birthday song 😂), but by letting that little personal threshold open the door into the bigger seasonal one we're all about to cross. So instead of our usual gathering, we're doing something a little different this time: a small home-brewed ceremony I'm calling The Turning Toast - our way of stepping up to the threshold together a few days early, so we can carry that balance with us into the equinox itself. What to bring: • One drinking glass (anything you've got) • A separate container with a drink of your choice - whatever calls to you • A candle, if you have one (totally optional - we'll light it if you've got it) How it'll go: We'll move through the ceremony together, one turn at a time: • A brief settling - a few breaths together, just enough to arrive in the moment and gather your attention into your hands. • The Dark - glass turned upside down. A moment for what's still uncertain, unformed, or unknown right now. • The Light - glass turned upright. What's become clear, illuminated, or understood. • The Harvest - a turn to the left. What you've cultivated this past season - the fruits of what you planted, tended, or worked for. • The Cold Crop - a turn to the right. What you're sowing now, for the darker half of the year ahead - the things that need winter to grow. • The Compost - pouring your drink into the glass. Not what's discarded, but what's given forth - the old material becoming the ground the new seeds need. • The Toast - glasses raised, and a quick word or two from whoever's there, whatever you want to offer the circle.

It's interesting that a more scientific type podcast is exploring. I'll probably have to listen again because I am going to sleep. I am intrigued.

I woke without a piece of me, Some fragment of my destiny; And, all at once, the world I knew Was upside-down, and sideways too. The morning came, but something strayed, A shadow where the light once stayed. The sun rose pale, then slipped from sight, An umbra of forgotten light. The windows opened on the street, But nothing looked the way it seemed. The houses leaned, the sidewalks bent, No path leads where it once went. The trees grew downward, roots grew high, Reaching up into the sky. The crows flew low beneath the ground; The mockingbirds, they made no sound. The rivers climbed instead of ran, Up every hill and back again. The rain fell upward from the sea, Into the silver clouds above me. I watched the argent of the moon Bruise the sun at half-past noon - For since my fate's forsaken frame, Nothing has been quite the same. And yet, beneath the altered ground, Some things remained as they were found. The wind still whispered through the trees, The earth still turned beneath the seas. The flowers opened with the dawn, The night arrived; the night was gone. The world kept moving, undismayed, A constant impetus, unswayed. Still, somehow - defying desire - The stars still burn familiar fire. The whole of heaven, rearranged - And yet, the sky hasn't changed.