Thoughts on a full moon
I write this as August’s Sturgeon moon heads towards fullness. A super-moon full-moon, she will shine brighter for being closer to the earth. I am taking her fullness as a place to reflect. Full moon is often associated with bringing plans to fruition but I feel her cycles are running too fast and I am discombobulated and not achieving all I want to.
When I was planning my recent website re-design (how can I encompass the universal and the technical all at once - humans are amazing and capable and evolving!)….when I was talking to my youngest trying to outline that I needed the website to be an umbrella for all my courses, online and in person as well as a place to sell my work and explain who I am, I couldn’t find the overarching essence of it all. As with any creation, you can end up too close to it, unable to step back and see the fullness of it, often erring to self-criticism rather than self-belief. A few days of not getting very far with an academic note-making and planning attempt to put my website together hadn’t got me anywhere. It took my 16 year old one sentence …. “It’s all about the seasons Mum”. And indeed it is.
Hard wired in to me is a soul that ebbs and flows with the seasons. I write of this often and then forget how that sense of mindfulness to what is happening in nature around me really grounds me. The colour of the grass on my walk, the leaves that change imperceptibly, the air, the condensation on the window all tell me that we are in summer but that soon we will roll into Autumn. I am planning my autumn courses, both in person and on line. And I want to start telling others about them but I realised I feel out of sync. I need to be in the summer. I need to feel the warmth and watch the clouds. The year runs fast enough without me fast forwarding.
And that is what I would suggest you do. Don’t fast forward. Stand and stare the super-moon in the face and anchor yourself in the now. Ask yourself what you need of this next lunar month.
“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Does your art reflect the seasons? Do you find solace in the ebb and flow of the moon phases? Does summer bring you heightened energy or exhaustion? How do you slow the passing of time? How do you slow so that you can find time to create?
I think I write these questions because the buzz of summer, the heat and long days eventually take their toll on me and I crave the routine of Autumn. And when the new season arrives I will be ready to express all her glory. And I look forward to sharing my new autumn inspired courses with you.
Let me know how the seasons affect your creative flow.
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I long for summer and the warmth of the sun in the depths of winter, spring excites me, promises summer will come but when summer arrives it is at once filled with expectations, all I will do now it has actually arrived. Yet I am easily exhausted by the heat, enervated, as my mother often said, I wish it to be cooler! By the end of summer about now I welcome, as you have put, the routine of Autumn, the jobs I know I have to do in the garden, the time I will enjoy spending there (sweeping leave is very meditative) and indoors too where I will again set myself tasks to do, aims for the season. Maybe my main purpose is simply 'to be' with whatever 'is', be guided by the seasons, maybe even the moon, (a new concept for me, thank you Helen). As for my creative pleasures, writing, art work and making books occasionally, I tell myself they will come to fruition when the time is right, and with a much needed plan to make the time, they might even actually get done! I am, not only, a butterfly flitting from unfinished project to another new project which has grabbed me but also impatient... but maybe if I adopt a more structured approach I will live more authentically with the moon and seasons alike...in time! I remain hopeful.
I've always known I d find it hard to live in a country with no clear seasons. Like you, I'm ready for the new one but this year I feared autumn as I'd not felt enough summer heat. I need to wear lighter clothing, eat lighter foods, walk in the sunshine, dawdle in the park. Our early summer was so cool and wet and I felt fearful but the recent warmth has helped. Looking forward to seeing the full moon....and making creative plans for after my seaside holiday. Thank you for your words.