Welcoming the Harvest Moon
This full moon is not just a great Neil Young song. It also signals the true ending of a cycle.
This week, I have been focusing on slowing myself down. The last few weeks have been full. Beautiful, but very full. Making the decision this summer to shift into this next chapter of my career, coming here fully, and letting my past career and work shed and reveal this new chapter has been immense. I couldn’t imagine it at any other time of the year.
Shifts and transitions typically involve a lot of deep emotional awareness and work. It is the thing that runs quietly under the surface and is the thing that just asking someone, “How have you been?” will never reveal. This work is typically not best placed in a short conversation but needs some time to wiggle out into the conversation. I know that’s true for me.
I sat with a friend last week and explained what I was about to do, but only after we had had two cups of tea and wandered her land for a bit did things finally feel ready to come out. I needed to feel the space was ready for how big this thing felt. Then, when I did, she simply said, “That is brave, but it is also the right thing.”
Making this change is like any transition; we will grieve the thing we leave behind for a bit, knowing that in some way, even if we turn around to it, we won’t be the same person we were when we left it, so how will it ever be the same? Then, there is a time of excitement and joy for what lies ahead. Then, there is settling in and the discomfort that comes with that. Embracing the new routines and what it takes to sink into them and find our groove again.
This is similar to the shift of the seasons, especially as we descend to the darkest day of the year. In many ways, we are in that time of transition where we know summer is fading behind us, and we can feel ourselves shifting with it all, too. We may not feel that this season as we know it will never repeat because it won’t. You won’t be the same. Your garden won’t be the same. Your children won’t be the same. Your dreams may not even be the same. We are all constantly evolving. There is grief and odd, complicated joy in it all. I know because I have it. I say embrace it and let it inform what is important to you so you can note it and return to it when we begin summer again in 9 months.
If you are a paid subscriber, you will get a deeper dive through events, chats with me, guides, and far more this season. I cannot wait to help you navigate this grand transition and how it can teach us about making big and little moves in life, from one time of our day to another or shifting our careers. I will help you hear and apply nature's answers and guidance.
If you loved the above reflection and prompt and want to hear more about shifting from teaching gardening to helping you navigate a deeper connection to self and nature, you can check out the above podcast. All of it will be shared in this space.
This week, I also shared these posts for subscribers:
Honoring the Cycle - Seasonal Essay
9/29 Reflection - The Best of The Season
*** These reflections are intended to help you see the truth from the land I hear throughout the week and spend time with it. Longer-form essays have moved to paid subscriptions on Wednesdays. ***
Today, the Harvest Moon will rise in the night sky and bring a palpable energy to the land around us.
I will wander the overgrown garden at sunset and moonrise, thankful for how everything is still giving but fading; my basket will return heavy with the fruition of all I planted in June that was dreamt about in January when the snowstorms rolled over the hills. The basket's weight will remind me of the many shoveled loads of compost that were moved while the grasses were beginning to green and the leaves on the trees were unfurling. These same leaves are now turning reds and oranges all around me in this warm light of late September.
There is a conversation unfolding as the moon rises in the sky, one I never could hear as clearly as I do now after these years of listening so closely. As the crickets buzz in earnest, I remember this moon signals the final act of the growing season. The light is changing, and we are reminded to shift ourselves, too. This month is the culmination of all we hoped and worked for, so I am reminded that this is now the time that I, too, must shift into my roots, just like the plants around me. This shift will be gradual and immediate, from how I wake in the morning to even the shoes that gather in the mudroom.
The golden hour of the year is rising on the glowy edges of the harvest moon. The rising full moon will signal the sandhill crane to migrate, the salmon to run the rivers, and the geese to honk the warning that winter is near. Their shifting routines remind us to reflect on all that has come to life this season and offer us permission to reflect on what has grounded us and carried us through the last few months and how abundance came into our lives.
Holding a basket of summer's final gifts, I only feel the overwhelming sense that this is another marker of the rhythms of life on Earth. Seasons of life come and go, so may we accept them just as we do the in and out of the waves on the lakeshore as being beautiful and calming.
Every week, I will share a way to pay attention and be mindful of our season so we can practice key lessons nature teaches us through these months.
3 Lessons Autumn Offers Us
Every season offers us specific lessons. Here are a few of them for you to remember during this season.
Letting go of what once served us can create space for something new in our growth: Watch the trees and how they first reveal their true color as they stop photosynthesis and no longer produce chlorophyll, which makes their leaves green. They then release the leaves that gave them life that growing year to welcome new ones after rest.
Aging is beautiful: We typically don’t find aging beautiful in our modern society. It is a sign of losing life. Instead, I find that nature speaks of the exact opposite. Growing old signifies wisdom, story, and strength; the larger trees usually hold up the younger ones. Pay attention to how aging is discussed this autumn in nature.
We have something to offer at all stages of life: I think of this most with sunflowers. They feed at every stage of their life, but if we leave their heads from now through winter, they will continue to feed thousands of animals. This fall, don’t clip back your plants. Let them show you how they are beginning something new in themselves or others, even in their endings.
Here are the things this week that I have been holding at the top of my mind and enjoying right now. Feel free to comment below anything you also love! I would love to hear in the comments. You all usually have some amazing things.
Reading: I am about halfway through reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I sadly have not read many of her books, but this one has been a really wonderful and relaxing read thus far. It is set in northern Michigan, and the main character’s husband runs a cherry orchard. I would suggest if you are looking for a wonderfully written and laid-back read. Ann recently was in Traverse City at the National Writer’s Series. If you want to watch the event, check it out here.
Listening: I know, I know, but I gotta do it. You cannot skip listening to Harvest Moon by Neil Young (sadly, he left Spotify, so this is all I got is that link) on Harvest Moon. I also was totally playing this Abba cover by Taylor Swift in the car because it was only “the 28th day of September” yesterday, after all. Nothing profound, just some good pop culture that celebrates this time of year.
Eyeing: Though we still have plenty of warm temps in the future, I am thinking of shifts in the home and closet without a doubt. I have been rather obsessed with buying second-hand for about three years now. I start there first in all things. So, I love to keep an eye on sites like Thredup for sweaters and winter items to freshen our closets while being mindful. If you have spent time with me and asked where I got something, it probably is from Thredup. I don’t have much time to shop, so finding things for me or the kids on here has been helpful.
But I won’t lie. This jacket in the green has been haunting me for a few years, and it may be added to my birthday or Christmas list.
For home, though, I want to make pillows to replace our current ones. These ones are acting as inspiration for what I will make. Now, I just need to find the right vintage or unique fabric.Doing: I am a member of the Leelanau Conservancy Collective, a group of young people in the Leelanau County area. We aim to help other younger families and people find a connective point in conserving the land here. I feel honored to spend time with these like-minded individuals and friends. Every year, we create an event celebrating the land that inspires us and what the land inspires us to make. Leelanau is a very creative community, and the Harvest Moon Festival at the DeYoung Farm is a wonderful celebration of it all. I have been working with fellow members to dream this up and support making this come together. If you are in the area, it is on 10/14, and it will be a magical evening. If you cannot make it, you can still bid on the incredible art curated by my friend, Alyssa Smith.
Paying Attention to: The ending of the tomato season. If you have tomatoes in your garden that still have green fruit. Here is my tip…top them off and prune all but a few branches. This will add stress, reveal the fruit to the last of the warm, long light, and encourage the fruit to at least blush. Once the fruit blushes, you are good to bring it inside. Do this before you receive a frost, which for many of us will be in the next 2-4 weeks.
Every season, I create a playlist on my Spotify. This one is fall, and I took the nostalgic tone here. A little more pop forward this year, but if you want any of my other fall playlists, you can find 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.
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Currently reading the original Dracula by Bram Stoker to get into the spooky season!