Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
We live in times when it often feels like everything is coming undone. The Celtic hinge points of Autumn Equinox, Samhain, the Winter Solstice, and Imbolc offer the wisdom of living into a rhythm that honors the importance of times of rest as essential to our personal and collective wellbeing.
This Friday, September 19th, we begin our Deep Rest series of mini-retreats with a gathering to honor the Autumn Equinox and the energy of surrender.
Autumn is a time of transition, of the earth’s turning, with the balance of light and dark in the northern hemisphere tilting toward the dark season and the invitation to release the excess we carry and rest into growing Mystery. At the heart of autumn’s gifts are the twin energies of relinquishing and harvesting. It is a season of paradox that invites us to gather in the harvest, to name and celebrate the fruits of the seeds we planted months ago. At the same time we are invited to consider what we are called to release and surrender.
The season of autumn calls us to honor the full spectrum of human experience, to not push away the sorrow and grief, to not fill the waiting with distractions. Fall thrusts us into the messiness of life and challenges us not to turn away. This is sometimes the relinquishment demanded of us.
But equally, this season calls us to the harvest. Seeds planted long ago create a bounty and fullness in our lives. Autumn invites us to remember the places in life where we had a dream that once felt tiny and has now grown and ripened into fullness. We move toward our own ripening and in that journey we let go of what no longer serves us. Fall urges us on to our own completion and sweetness.
This season reminds us that the journey of relinquishing all we hold dear is also the journey of harvesting. Somehow these two come together year after year. In holding them in tension we are reminded that in our letting go we also find abundance. What are you holding onto too tightly these autumn days that can be gently let go of in the season ahead?
Join us Friday for our Autumn Equinox retreat. Guided by Simon de Voil, Cassidhe Hart, and Aisling Richmond we will break open the invitations to harvest and release through music, poetry, teaching, reflection, and meditation.
My latest book Give Me a Word will be released this week. Join us on September 22nd for a free book launch to celebrate the harvest of this resource that was cultivated through many years of our community Give Me a Word retreats.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
PS For our dancing monks in the Southern Hemisphere here is a reflection on the Spring Equinox.
