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First Week of Autumn 2022 greetings to YOU!

Last Thursday night, the Autumnal Equinox officially occurred, during which we were gifted with a couple of days in which the hours of daylight and nighttime were roughly equal. Note: The word Equinox comes from the Latin words, equ = equal + nox = night.

I love it. You?

Here's the lowdown on some of what makes this annual sky/planet-phenomenon so special, and how we might consider marking THIS time and THIS season in a way that speaks to each of us & helps us to deepen our connection with Autumn's unique purposes.

#1 Now is the Threshold to Autumn & the time to welcome the Matriarch-Queen

I know, I know. So many of us think about pumpkin-spiced everything, knits, corn mazes, and backyard fire pits (and there is certainly NOTHING wrong with any/all of this!).

But, for just a minute, I want you to picture yourself standing in the open doorway of a prosperous “farm-her’s” barn. Behind you stand row upon row of now-empty apple trees. Off to the side, beyond the barren orchard, you catch a glimpse of the vegetable garden, mostly depleted with perhaps a handful of tenacious tomatoes still clinging to their vines.

You pivot and peer into the barn, where you gaze upon a generous number of bushel baskets, piled high with apples of every color and size. Along one wall, a long table/workbench with neatly-labeled jars of homemade apple butter is glistening in the light streaming in through the door, and you can see and smell! a number of freshly baked apple pies, cooling in preparation of the annual harvest feast set to take place this very night.

This rustic scene is chock full of what the Matriarch-Queen wants to teach us about “autumning” well. It involves practicing…

• Gratitude in gathering the harvest

• Celebrating abundance

• Shifting from the outwardly hard, demanding work of Spring & Summer

• Taking stock & preparing for the Winter to come

#2 Now is the Threshold to the 2nd Half of the Year & the time to welcome balance and darkness

Twice a year, at both the Spring & Fall Equinoxes, Mama Earth undergoes a dramatic SHIFT in her energies as she responds to the Earth's tilt and orbit.

• In the increasing light of Spring, it's about the SHIFT into the outward, upward, efforting energies that causes baby chicks to hatch & seeds to break open and begin thrusting themselves towards the Sun

• In the decreasing light of Autumn, it's a SHIFT into the inward, downward, surrendering energies that prompt Sister Tree to release her leaves & remind Cousin Bear that she might wanna scout out a good place now for her near-future hibernation

It seems like such a sensible, simple sort of fractioning, right? Half of our time for thriving and producing and the other half for withdrawing and releasing. It's like Balance 101.

But as a culture, we tend to be more about the non-stop hustle and the glory of perpetual exhaustion. Face it, we too often live in total imbalance.

This makes being “Equinox Well-Seasoned ” uber worthwhile.

It's as if Mama Nature says, “Okay, children, pay attention. I'm encapsulating in each equinox what I'm now gonna spend the rest of the year slowly unpacking for your own pursuit of Balance and Sustainable Vitality and Creativity. Ready? Follow me!”

#3 Now is the time for some Well-Seasoned welcoming

Because it's way too easy to just “keep on keeping on” & miss out on this invitation to SHIFT with Mama Nature's rhythms, here is a quick idea list to spark your own rituals in setting aside time to celebrate THIS TIME and THIS SEASON.

• Spend time outside, ideally without your phone. Practice breathing deeply while you get in touch with what is happening OUT THERE in the natural world. Make a game of it by discovering 5 natural things you can see, 4 natural things you can hear, 3 natural things you can touch, 2 natural things you can smell, and something natural you can taste (You may want to provide a warm mug of cider to sip on as you stroll/sit). Elevate the experience by saying a quick word of thanks for each thing on your list as you name it.

• Honor balance and darkness. In the early evening, go outside or stand inside near a window & practice this simple Yoga Flow for balance: Mountain Pose -→Chair Pose -→Tree pose (You can look up how to do each pose online). Alternately, you can just practice standing on one foot for a full breath & then switching to the other foot for another breath. As you move through either of these cycles, think about ways to bring more balance to your daily cycles of work/rest; and, be aware of the deeper invitation to embrace the encroaching darkness.

• Spend some time in journal reflection on prompts such as these: What is my relationship with the dark? What in me resists slowing down? What am I most grateful for? Where am I able to coast a bit more (work a bit less)? What is my biggest life imbalance right now? What would help me restore balance to my life?

Finish any/all of the above by saying aloud, “Welcome, Autumn. Welcome, Matriarch-Queen.”

Until next time, dear reader,

xo