Wednesday 8 September 2010

On Mellow Fruitfulness and New Beginnings...


The early morning sunlight is golden on the treetops, and mist still lingers in the valley folds. The robin's song has a tinge of autumn melancholy, and the sunlit dew highlights a hundred spider webs. September is here, and with her the onset of autumn. Though the swallows and martens of summer haven't yet departed, autumn now begins to take over.


I was musing this morning how strange it is that September and autumn can feel like a beginning. Mostly autumn is portrayed as the end, the culmination of the year, a time of harvest. And yet isn't it - aren't all turning points - also beginnings? Years ago, I wrote a poem, part of which declared:

"Through life and death and rebirth,
The thread continues spinning;
And though all beginnings have to end,
All ends are but beginnings"


In September the children go back to school, the new academic year begins. People return from summer holidays and in many cases begin planning their next holiday straight away! The shops begin their run-up to Christmas (yes I know!). Bulbs are planted in anticipation of the next spring, jumpers and boots re-emerge from their summer hiatus, the swallows begin their long journey back to warmer climes.


September marks the end of summer, but also the beginning of a new season - autumn. There are so many turning points in our lives, but every ending is simultaneously a new beginning, a new opportunity. This morning I'm remembering to be thankful for what has passed, whilst welcoming in the new...




4 comments:

Griffin said...

I see autumn as both a beginning and an end too. An end of the summer (such as it was!!) and the beginning of what I called in one of my novels, Sleep-season. The earth seems to shuffle in it's bed making the seeds and itself comfortable for the rains and fogs that are to come in Stone-season (cos it's hard and cold!)

I love autumn's sense of stillness and also it's 'fires' and wildness, but I also wish it was still spring, cos every November I get another year older!!

Moonroot said...

Griffin, I like your season names! So if autumn is Sleep-season and winter is Stone-season, what are spring and summer? I'm curious!

Griffin said...

Spring is Springforth Season and Summer was rather boringly just called Sun-Season! They had 13 months in line with the Lunar calendar too and used poetry for 'money' instead of actual money.

laoi gaul~williams said...

i always see autumn as a begining rather than an end~the withdraw of the light is the begining of hibernation and soul searching to me~a good time to reassess any new starts that are needed