Tomorrow summer supposedly ends, and autumn begins. Though I must say, we haven't had much of a summer here in the Heartland. The air conditioner (sorry KCP&L) wasn't used as much as in past years - and the days seemed to speed by.
I've noticed a few trees beginning to turn. The nights are cool and great for sleeping - windows open and a comforter in use.
"This is the Autumn Equinox, when the fruits of summer are taken inside and made ready." - Danaan Perry
On the seasonal wheel, this is a time of balance, of equal hours of dark and light. My Celtic ancestors celebrated the Equinox as a time of harvest - called Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving or the Feast of Dionysius, among others. Christianity co-opted the holiday, as they did so many others, turning it into Michaelmas.
It was/is a time to give thanks for the gifts of the Creator. And it was a wake-up call that winter was coming...when life recedes into the earth and the world appears dormant or dead. A time for contemplation.
I've had plenty o' time for contemplation - I injured my back the day after my birthday and have spent the last several weeks alternately communing with an ice pack and a heating pad. The best description I have for it is "sledgehammer to the middle back." Thank God for a chiropractor whom I've dubbed 'the miracle worker.'
(Here's where the explanation in the headline comes in: I wrote my first blog entry in Word on Aug. 26, my birthday, but because of the back thing, didn't get the entry posted and the blog going until yesterday. Hence the mismatched dates on my first entry.)
How did I injure myself, you ask? I TURNED MY HEAD. Period. No great exertion. Just turned my head to the side to look at something and felt a pop deep in my middle back. What a pisser...
A friend of mine always asks, "And what's the lesson here?" Hmmmm. I have a birthday that is of a significant number and - wham - the universe debilitates me. As my brother the shrink told me yesterday, "In the last third of your life, you can't be casual about the body you live in."
The seasonal wheel keeps turning...and sometimes it's a bitch.
No comments:
Post a Comment