Summer is just not backing down, He is standing His ground, hanging on until the Autumn Lady comes to say, “Enough, child, you’re punch drunk. Go to bed.”
The weather forecast said we could expect a high of 71 degrees today (that’s 22 for my civilized friends around the world), and here it is 91 (32). What? Why?
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am not a summer lover. No. Autumn and Spring are the best. Winter is next. Summer is for plants and bugs. I am neither of those. Winter gets cold, but you can always add another layer or wrap up in blankets. But there comes a point in Summer when you don’t have anymore clothes to take off and you’re still miserably hot, and I am not okay with any of that.
But I digress. Officially, it’s still Summer’s End here, we’re in the great winding down. I am harvesting herbs and tomatoes and doing things with jars that will be of interest to no one. Autumn hasn’t really started yet, but it’s sure trying. But Summer is not having it, so we’re in this really weird time when it’s chilly at night and beastly during the day, and we’re getting some interesting weather again.
It’s a between-time, and honestly I do love the between places. I think I might be part cat. I love to be hidden, inside, curled up, invisible, stealthy, secret; I love the dark, love the shadows and the dappled places where you know the Sun is trying to find you but He can’t quite see you. I might be susceptible to red dots, I don’t know, no one has ever tried. But I digress again. We’re in a little pocket between Summer and Autumn, a cozy little incubator, but one that sways back and forth from cool to hot to rainy to dry to breezy to still like a drunk driver – or like two drivers of one car trying to go to different places, which is much more true. Summer is hanging on for dear life while Autumn is saying, “No, it’s my turn to drive now, back off!”
Or as some people would say, if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.
Let’s think about “between” for a minute. Imagine yourself on that big swoosh that goes through the middle of Yin and Yang, swelling one way, compressing the next, then rolling over and doing it all again. We’re swooshing toward the night side, surfing that wave like a beach bum, and all the while it’s spinning around, getting ready for the dark side to be ascendant, and we’re at a point where we are starting to rise and rise and rise again, getting ready to launch into the Long Dark. Our bodies feel weightless, we can throw our hands up in the air and realize we’re actually flying . . . Take a breath and feel gravity Let You Go just for a little bit. It’s a magic feeling, tingly and strange and so incredibly alive.
These Betweens are where It happens. Where the best stuff gets incubated. Where we leave behind everything that we ever believed that couldn’t possibly define us. We lift off and leave it all on the ground.
Talk about lightening the load. If you can trust the Universe to hold you, you can embrace the weightlessness of this time, and shed everything that doesn’t make your life better. Some of it can sting a little, but most of it you won’t even notice until you land and realize how much lighter you have become. This is part of the Harvest, too. We reap the fruits and return to Earth what we don’t need so She can compost that shit and make something beautiful happen with it. There is crazy momentum here, but if you aren’t ready, there’s another Between coming in six months. And in six months after that, too.