Lughnasa Waning Harvest Moon
May I present Autumn? It comes to us in russets and golds, grays and rain, with some chill and occasional warmth. Autumn continues our seasonal review, following the spectacular summer with its heat and its emphasis on differing shades of green, a color wheel of blooms and food.
Autumn, like our earlier season, Spring, is a time of change, the gradual transition from the heat and bombast of the growing season to the bleak outer landscapes of the fallow months.
Autumn also marks the beginning of the academic year, a moment of new beginnings, a springtime of the inner world. This part of the season has its own holiday, Michaelmas, the holy day for the Archangel Michael, and the traditional opening of the English academic year.
In my life change has blown in with the cold rain. Mark will leave us sometime in the next few days, before the end of October. The growing season has wound down with only potatoes, beans, leeks and chard left in the garden. A long vacation grows closer by the day, less than a month away.
There is, too, a growing sense that a major life change may be imminent. Just what it will be is unclear, though it feels like retirement may be in the cards, joining Kate in her journey beyond the world of work. How would that manifest in my life, long ago cast off from the port marked Employment?
Leaving behind the era of productive engagement with the world feels premature for me, but a new freedom may emerge. It may longer be necessary to lash myself to the mast while sailing between the Charybdis of success and the Scylla of ambition.
Mystery. The once hidden ocean of mystery lies beyond the current horizon. And I’ve already set sail.