The Fall Equinox

SUBHEAD: Musings and a Poem - Seeking balance today, and planning for the coming fall and winter.

 By Linda Pascatore on 22 September 2011 for Island Breath -  
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-equinix.html)
  
Image above: The transition from summer to fall. From (http://www.maryvancenc.com/2009/09/transitioning-into-fall-recipe/).

The Autumnal Equinox, when the hours of light and dark are balanced, is on September 23rd. The beginning of the fall season has traditionally been a time to take stock of your harvest, and prepare and plan for the coming winter. It looks as though a big fall is coming, that has little to do with the season of the year. We have been in a recession for a while, but with the European Union falling apart, we may be in for a worldwide economic collapse.

One root of these recent economic problems is peak oil and the decline of the resources on which industrial economies have been based. There also appears to be a fall coming in another dimension: the natural world. Global warming has generating more natural disasters of increasing severity. Although no longer in the mainstream news, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is still out of control and will be spewing significant radiation for a long time to come, which will have worldwide effects.

So, what do we do with all this overload of seemingly horrific news? Well, change is definitely coming. There will be a long, hard winter to come. But this economic and environmental fall and winter could result in a better world to come in the spring. We need to wake up, and begin to live sustainably with the earth. We need to do with less resources and things.

However, we could develop a simpler life which is better connected to the earth, with a rich spiritual dimension. I look for balance on this equinox. I balance the big bad news of the world with little things; planting some seeds, sharing fruit with neighbors, shopping at the local market, making something by hand, walking instead of driving--and tuning into the earth as I go. I recently found a poem which resonated beautifully with my equinox musings. It was written by Oak Chezar, and published in the 2011 We'Moon datebook:

The Fall Today, the market's falling, Autumn leaves are falling. It's beautiful. Instructions for uprising coming down with falling leaves and The waiting's almost done. The second industrial revolution is the one against industry Freeing us from the wars, the toxins, the domination Free us like trees into sharing and seasons and merciful silence. Seeds: prepare yourselves for yourselves.

Friends: prepare yourselves like autumn silence falling Walk out into the glittering groves in silence We're told trust in god, but I swear allegiance to this earth And the endlessness of life finding her way Trust in bags of beans and rice, gardens and gallons of olive oil Trust in rain, community, in gravity, self sufficiency We were always each others' social security

Celebrate when the blue wind shakes her tambourine and Leaves said down, the aroma of decay blessing life with insurrection Trust the direction of down Sink into the ground, exhausted, this is reality Aspens shimmy out of their tender underwear Leaves drop like silken panties to the forest floor Crown the homeless, the impoverished, drop down, fall down, crash Like the walls of Wall Street, like the tanks of free trade Sit.

Take your shoes off. Breathe. Just step aside, crumble into compost, leaf on. Fall. Away from bulldozers and alarm clocks Gas pumps and sharp objects of danger, fall. Prepare to enter the forest, ask forgiveness Season of atonement when we'll eat the seeds of roses Our unfinished animal selves laughing like grass in parking lot cracks Fall into this world again, her dark ecstatic galaxies craving form the language of longing fruiting inside our gorgeous imaginations our pockets full of seeds, our sacks of rice and beans and the naked truth of winter circling closer.

Oak Chezar excerpt in We'Moon from Fall Leaves, © Sequoia 2009