Honouring the Seasons and Cycles of Nature
This year I’ve been connecting with the seasons and how they effect my energy and creativity.
I’m really keen to learn more about the local seasons for where I live - the S.E. corner of Australia. The Aboriginal people had seven seasons for this part of the world. Each season is heralded by something happening in nature. A particular grass flowering or the little brown bats flying. I love this way of honouring and acknowledging the seasons. By looking at what is actually happening in nature rather than flipping to a date on the calendar on the wall. It feels so right and so real. I don’t know a lot about it yet so for now, I’m still going by the traditional European seasons.
Autumn this year was a real time of harvest. I was very busy doing and making for my Legato Perfumes. The crisp mornings and warm days filled me with energy after the languid laziness of summer. I was focussed on getting my perfumes ready for market and my web site up and running. I was a woman on a mission!
I had a sense of urgency, of getting things done before winter set in. And I am so very glad I did because when winter came, I slowed right down. I started nesting and organising the house, getting ready for those chilly, rainy days and long, dark winter nights. My desk has had a lovely makeover and is now warm and inviting. I've gathered into one place all the things I need for my current passion - perfume making. It beckons to me on the cold winter evenings to come and sit and draw and write.
As well as connecting with the seasons, I have also been connecting with my own menstural cycle. It’s amazing to me that I have been menstruating for so long without paying any attention to the effect my cycle has on my mood and emotions. I’m talking about more than cramps and PMT here. I’m talking about knowing the times when I am fertile and creative; when I am fallow and need rest.
I used to chafe at the urge to sit and rest. I resented it and just kept pushing through. Now, I’m so much better at giving in gracefully to the urge to sit on the couch reading books and drinking cups of tea. I’m not “doing” anything in partiular but I am doing something very important - I am regenerating. Nature and animals understand this instinctively. They hibernate in winter; the earth lies fallow. While it is resting, it is regenerating, preparing for Spring and new life and new growth. I've come to realise that I am much the same.
I need to balance my times of activity with periods of rest in which to regenerate. I remind myself that this resting period will pass. I will feel like making and writing once more. I resist the urge to "do", knowing that after resting, I will have so much more energy to do what needs to be done. Instead of pushing through, getting cranky and making mistakes, I rest. And when I have rested, I am filled with energy and simply fly through my projects and list of things to do!