AUGUST | Seasonal Reflection
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AUGUST | Seasonal Reflection
It all started here: a practice of deep, seasonal reflection. No matter where you are in your spiritual practices, this is the foundation. Let's tonify the core! August: harvest + sustenance.
“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.”
- Jane Austen
In the old calendars, August was the month that began the Harvest season. This is the season that we now call Fall or Autumn. The season traditionally began when the grain crops were ripe in the field. As the concept of the calendar took hold in Europe, the date chosen for the beginning of the harvest season was August 1.
We live in a culture where few of us actually work the land and understand the joys, sorrows, and hard work of growing and harvesting. Step in and experience this cycle: go to a U-Pick-It farm or orchard and experience what it means to harvest. Go to the woods and forage for wild edibles. Take a drive in the country and observe the fields, noting when the grain harvest begins. Use this as a touchstone to the changing of the seasons.
The wheel of the year is slowly turning. While it is still hot and muggy outside, there are quiet signs of the winter to come. Look around you. Note the signs of darkness and the hints of decay.
This is a time to think about sustenance. Sustenance comes from more than food.
What sustains you and your family?
What sustains society in general?
What can you give, and what do you give in return for these gifts?
Let these questions guide your thoughts. Perhaps you’ll decide to journal on them. For me, asking myself questions like these are part of my seasonal practice, it’s how I pull the energy of the season into my everyday life, allowing my inward thoughts to reflect the doings of the outer world.
I return to these questions over and over, season after season. My answers change and I’m sure yours will as well.
If you are so moved, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I’ll post a chat in the next couple days so we can discuss after we’ve all had a moment to sit with our thoughts.
xx Maia
AUGUST | Seasonal Reflection
To me, what sustains is reciprocity. This is something I truly began to see, feel, and understand when I worked on an organic, regenerative farm for a season in Central Florida this year. I recently wrote on Substack about it too because it felt so meaningful at this moment in time. Thank you for this thoughtful piece!
The wheel of the year season timing make sooooo much more sense than switching seasons at the solstices and equinoxes like our standard calendar. I think it hit me last year from reading something in one of your books and I had a ‘duh’ moment too. Of course August is the beginning of fall and Halloween is the beginning of winter! The equinoxes are the inflection points and the solstices the peaks/valleys ... so them being the mid-points of the seasons feels so much more accurate. Also my day job is using math to understand nature and I just had a major nerd out inside my head about sine waves and seasons. Yay!