Harvest Time and Natural Beauty

Autumn comes!

Potent and bright, the air of Autumn is somehow clearer, as if a boundary or purpose is being defined for us. A reminder - it is time to prepare.

I love Autumn. To list the reasons is tedious, especially as they are mostly emotional, almost febrile in nature. Autumn leaves me tightly bound.

Last Friday I found myself out gathering, something I've done almost every Autumn for as long as I can remember. As a girl I carryied home pockets full of acorns, grass seeds, and rose hips. I remember the smell of windfallen apples in my parents' orchard, the way the apples gleamed with cold dew even in the late morning. I love that smell. I remember the darkness of rosehips as they withered.

What is it about this time of year that connects us so accutely to the Earth? It's the same feeling I get in the Spring when my hands yearn to be in the ground digging, sewing the seeds that will see the Summer harvest if I am fortunate and careful. It's as if I am inherently a farmer, an animal, and a nomadic woman all rolled into one. Perhaps it is cellular memory.

The seasons run and flow together, ebbing with the Moon and the tilt of the Earth, with the vast force of the universe. It's a beautiful rhythm - a truth for all that lives! Something as ancient as the Earth itself and the dust of stars, all somehow part of the body that is me makes me feel somehow small, but special. :o) Perhaps it's just the spirit of being alive.

So I say this to you today on this cool September morning: take time to enjoy the season for it is truly amazing. Gather seeds, watch the birds and the animals prepare (for even in the city they do it), and harvest - even if it is only by gathering memories! But don't forget to relish the crispness of the air and the last dreaming days of Summer.

Blessed be! )O(