It’s time to greet the darkness again.

The wheel of the year is turning.  A chill has sneaked into our morning air and August sunshine and carefree summer days will soon be a distant memory.  We are officially heading into the dark half of the year.

This time of year is odd, if you think about it.  If you follow the standard calendar, we are officially three quarters of the way through the year when we reach mid to late September, and yet in our modern lives we also find ourselves on a threshold, at a time of ending and a time of beginning.

Our long, light, busy, adventurous, lazy, hazy summer days are fading behind us. Some of us will grieve their passing.  For me, they are here too short a time so I will be among those numbers.

And, our attention is being called towards our work, and our education; we are being asked to bring new vigour to these spheres of life, whilst at the same time facing a world which is fading into darkness. We are being asked to do something which is largely at odds with the season’s call.

I like to take autumn inspiration from our glorious cousins the trees, the original standing people (we are actually related on an evolutionary scale, we just took a different path in a time so long ago that none of us can remember). Read more