Saturday is the official first day of fall (also my birthday!), and the second of the harvest festivals. It’s a time to take stock, give thanks for your bounties, and prepare for the winter to come. It’s also the time when the days and nights are in balance, roughly the same length, before we plunge into the shorter and shorter days that lead to the winter solstice.
This is always my favorite time of year (and not just because it’s my birthday), a time when the light turns golden, the air gets crisp, and I feel sated from the long, busy, hot days of summer and ready for more quiet and dark. At least for a few weeks, and then I long for the light to come back – but longing is life, right? I’ve had a birthday ritual of finding a sunny spot outdoors and writing in my journal, taking stock of where I am, where I want to go, and what needs to change. I’ve found it centering and inspiring, and I enjoy looking back at past years and seeing my winding path.
This year, I am feeling an especially strong need to check in, reset, refresh my goals and discard what’s not working. It feels like there’s a lot that’s not quite working. I’ve been in a transition for about a year now, and it’s not been quite as smooth as I had hoped. Lots of things are working, but I’ve felt so distracted and interrupted, and it’s been hard to find my flow. It’s a good time for me to examine the work I want to produce and the way I want to do it, and find some new practices, and let some others go.
In a more traditional sense, I’m also going to harvest our butternut squash and make some autumn-appropriate soup on Sunday!
