A Change of Season

My wife and I share what we are reading with each other. From time to time, I point out (or read aloud) something that seems to hit me, and she does the same towards me. Sometimes we just pick-up one another's devotionals and skim a bit. The two of us have been talking of late about how the season of our summer cruise is done, that there is an adjustment to the rituals of the school year. Even when we are enjoying the school year ritual, and/or looking forward to what it brings, there is still an adjustment.
Yesterday, the first storm of the season blew through, in fact it is still gusting as I write. This is the earliest I remember one blowing, it feels more like late October. And yet ... how appropriate for the first day of Autumn.
This morning I then found the following:

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keeping bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

~ Marge Piercy

     In the early seventies I belonged to a woman's moon circle and we celebrated the full moons and the changing seasons. These were special times of celebration and through our acknowledgment of the change of seasons we awoke to the sacredness of change. We were renewing an ancient ritual that has been performed throughout the world. The journey to unveil the power of love, the power of beauty within, is a process of accepting change. Each season has its time, an if the season is well lived and its lessons learned, we won't cling to the past. We will continue the journey of awakening, opening into the truth of each moment.

     Honoring the turning of the seasons is a wonderful way to reconnect with the Earth. The ritual can be as simple as noting in your journal the qualities of the new season or the solitary lighting of a single candle to mark the season's change. You may want to gather with friends to sing, dance, and celebrate. What were the gifts of the past season? What is the new season bringing forth?

~ Diane Mariechild. Open Mind: Women's Daily 

Inspiration for Becoming Mindful. 1995. September 17

It reminded me of Ecclesiastes, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ..." (3:1). It reminded me, too, of how when out cruising (especially) we are mindful of the cycles of the moon - how they effect the tides and currents. And what great questions: "What were the gifts of the past season? What is the new season bringing forth?" We might add, where were you surprised by Grace?

As this new season opens forth, Blessed Be,

Joel