The Gathering of Geese

 

 

 

Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings

Friends that turned into family

Dreams that turned into reality

And likes that turned into love.

-author unknown

Nights, it feels like autumn.  It is hot during the day and then I am grateful for evening to come.  The geese are gathering and it haunts me to hear it already.  I am not a winter-lover.  I am busy, everyday, canning and freezing, and getting rid of the old.  I feel myself transitioning as the season does.

It is taking longer for the sun to rise above the tall cedar trees.  It is still close to 30c during the day, but at night, you can feel fall in the air.  I need one touch of frost for the grapes to be ready turn steam into juice.  Fall loses its splendor as pumpkin and spice leaves do their last dance.  The transition is beautiful, the completion difficult for I know winter is coming and I am not a lover of winter, as I have said before. 

I always think of Fall as the last gasp of the year.  Winter, for me, means staying in, out of nature.  It means long cold days of making soup and savoring the canning I have done in preparation for the long wait for spring.  And, rather than focus on that, I fix things.  I fix relationships that are worthy of such.  I pare down my summer things that have made it another year longer than they needed to.  I make sure I have new projects to work on with the materials I have gleaned by beg or borrow or blend.  I tend to have dumped a lot of old habits and am trying out new ones.  I have the winter to plan for, still.  There is yet some things I need to purge. 

I have gathered cedar and sage and sacred fungus.  They will sustain my spirit as I dive in for the winter.  I am prepared to do the work that winter will require of me.  I feel a longing, immediately, when geese begin to gather.

What do you do to prepare for the long wait through winter?  What do you do during your transitions?  Do you feel a sadness when geese gather?

©Carol Desjarlais 9.8.20