Reflections Upon September

Reflections on the Rio Grande

September is my favorite month. Always has been. Even in those dreaded days of my youth when it meant going back to school and all the teasing and not fitting in. September meant, more than any other month, new beginnings. In school it was new subjects, possibly new friends, definitely new books, and new clothes.

I really love September. It smells wonderful. So fresh. And every day there will be oh, so subtle changes as vegetables ripen and foliage begins to turn, and flower petals fall and reveal seed cases of fascinating shapes.

Fresh flowers I have left outside all summer long. Dried grasses and seed pods and dried flowers I will cut and bring inside to fill all manner of containers. And I will collect the seeds; the promise of a new spring. Fall reaches its culmination in October with the harvest but September is the beginning of the fall.



Spring is the promise and September is the glory of that promise. And yet there is always this bitter sweetness about September. Soon the glorious leaves will fall. The last flower will bloom. But if we are lucky those things will not happen until October. Snow will not fall until November.



I have made it a rule to never ruin September with a marriage or a divorce. I avoid relationships in September because it is my month. Thirty years ago the 9th of September I gave up drugs and alcohol. And I began to habit of reflection in September. Sometimes I do a soak in Pagosa for a few days. I had plans to camp this year. But, Mardi Gras, my fur companion of a decade and a half, will be 15 this September 6th. That is hugely old for a standard poodle. So this September I will be sticking close to home. I may just let the answering machine take all the messages for hours or days while I sit on the stoop, or paint in the studio. Or me, my camera, and my fur kids in the truck in the mountains if just for a few hours.

Meteorologically autumn begins today but the autumnal equinox is September 22nd this year. Mabon, the White Goddess, marks the middle of harvest. The Harvest Moon will be September 8th. Time for all things to come to fruition. Traditionally the time to look back and reflect on your past life and plan ahead to the future. Or just celebrate having made it to this point in time.

White rabbit, white rabbit.

Comments

  1. Ien in the KootenaysSeptember 1, 2014 at 8:08 AM

    Love this. Just quietly Being in the wheel of the seasons is my greatest joy in life.

    ReplyDelete

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