Fall

Fall

"Autumn is a good time for visiting;
During its short days there is work for all...
There are sweet acorns in the high woods,
Cornstalks are kind over the brown earth."
    ___ ancient Irish poem of the seasons
             (trans. CM)

   After the labor of the grain harvest, the people of the Celtic world looked forward to a more sociable time together, although they by no means stopped work.  This autumnal time is full of the bustling preparation for winter, a task to which animals and birds still pay serious heed. Without their intensive harvesting and harboring in the storehouses of tree and earth, there would be little to sustain life in a very few weeks.
    As the garden begins to look straggly and unkempt, the work is to uproot, to collect seeds from the clustering seed-heads, and to dig up the ground in preparation for the winter ahead. Autumn's many-colored intensity begins to deepen and wrap us round as this season makes its royal progress, shouts its long goodby to the growing time. Trees lean together in more contemplative coteries, their summer dancing stilled until the strong winds begin, when their leaves will tear loose to be blown about the world in wild jigs and solitary war dances.
    There are those who find autumn a time of melancholy reflection, a reminder of death and decay; but the world is a wiser place if we attend closely to its turning. The cycle of our years is annually enriched by the lessons of the fall: as students return to school and college, so we can turn to this expansive tutorial of the year's new term in search of maturity, heart's sharing and the work of our dedicated living.

"Take a walk where you can best appreciate the turning season. As you walk, commune with the spirits of the plants, trees, and animals that you encounter and learn from them the message of fall."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]