And bring some balance into your world

A tinge of red and orange dot the hillside banked with a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. A few big maple leaves have already begun to litter the walkways as the days grow shorter and the evenings become crisper. The wheel of the year has come full circle. Autumn is on its way.

I know for me, the slight chill in the air, the slanting sunlight, and the smell of wood smoke from a home hearth awakens my senses, or as F.Scott Fitzgerald said;

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

And with the change of season, we watch as the sunlight wanes, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, there is one day of balance, transitioning from the summer months and ushering us into fall, the Autumn Equinox.

What is the Autumn Equinox?

The Latin word equinox literally means ‘equal night’. There are two equinoxes in the astronomical calendar, one in the spring and one in the fall.

They mark the change in seasons and during autumn mark the balance of the light shifting from the longer days to darker, longer nights of winter.

On September 22nd, the sun will cross above the Earth’s equator, from north to south, marking nature’s conversion to the new season.

Earlier humans spent more time outdoors than we do now, becoming more accustomed to nature’s processes including those happening in the celestial skies, like the movements of the sun and moon.

A harvest ritual by any other name……