Autumnal Equinox

Saturday September 22, 2012
Charlottesville

 

 

Today is the first day of fall and it is beginning to feel like it here.  The trees in the mountains are just starting to turn to the brilliant oranges and reds that everyone flocks to the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway to see. Although our farm is very close to the junction of those two beautiful roads,   I don’t head up there since I’m not a crowds person.

 

 

 

It will be another week or 10 days before we begin to see them here in the foothills.  But they will last into mid October and our valley is beautiful to behold then.  We don’t have to drive anywhere.  All we have to do is look around.  We are lucky to be back here at this time of year even for a short time.

 

 

 

The temperatures didn’t dip quite into the 40’s overnight but came close at 51.  The high today will be near 80.  Simply perfect weather especially for a hike or playing outdoors even if there are not yet leaves in piles to play in, another of my favorites in the fall that I miss when I’m not in a 4 seasons location.  Hope you’ll be outside enjoying the spirit of fall on its opening day.

 

 

Autumn Equinox is one of the two points of balance in the natural year when the days and nights are of equal length.  The sun rises in absolute East and sets in absolute West so if you ever wanted to know where they are today is the day.

This Equinox signifies the end of the summer season, as now the days will begin to grow shorter and the nights grow longer.  The tradition of the Autumn season was the time of the harvest, and preparing for the winter’s scarcities to come.  It signaled an end to the expansive, and  extreme bursts of heat, growth, and light found throughout the summer.

Literally and figuratively, it is about reaping what we’ve sown, bringing to bear all that we’ve been doing throughout the year, and preparing for the remainder of the year which can feel speeded up, hectic and stressful due to the impending November and December holidays.  

 

For many years before Winnona, for us each fall meant harvesting grapes and apples like these, organic and not perfect.  It meant making juice/jams/pies and preserves.  It meant the beginning of snuggling into blankets, finishing up gathering the year’s firewood and cleaning out the chimney for another winter around the woodstove. And so moving our gaze to a quieter, more restrained sensibility.  Even being on the road where winter is no longer so cold and snowy, I hope to remember that the body and mind need a quiet restrained time of year even if I’m not in a place where the temperatures remind me to curl inward and rest.

 

These special days of the natural year are ones on which I try to stop and experience what is happening in my universe and on my beloved planet.  Fall Equinox is just such a moment of pause:  when the seesaw is at its most perfect point of balance.  It gives me a moment to catch my breath, ground myself, and assess.  This has been a rough year for us and I have found myself doing much too much striving. On this day I promise myself instead to  do my best to cultivate balance in my life and to emphasize clarity over calamity. 

 

I hope your Fall Equinox day is invigorating and your life moving into perfect balance.  Your comments have been a mainstay for me these many months.  Thank you all so very much for making this difficult journey with us.   ~Sherry~