Autumnal Equinox

Finding Balance in the Holy Instant

Today is the autumnal equinox for those of us in the northern hemisphere.  In some of the old pagan traditions, it’s known as Mabon.  This ancient holiday is celebrated by gathering loved ones and partaking in a sumptuous feast to show gratitude for the bountiful harvest the earth has bestowed upon us.

Emily Dickinson summarized the change of the season in her poem “Autumn.”

Autumn

by Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Saturday, we joined some friends who were having their own end of summer celebration down at the beach.  They rented a pavilion, a live musician, and supplied delicious food and wine.  It was a lovely event, and we reunited with several friends we haven’t seen in a few years.  It was a celebration fitting for Mabon.

The equinox is a day where we acknowledge the balance between the light and the dark as each shares an equal part of the day.  It’s a day set apart for meditation and gratitude.  It can be spent taking a walk in nature, listening to the leaves crunch under your feet and smelling that spicy scent that comes with the fading foliage.

Today, Sunday, a day of rest, take a stroll outside, in nature if you can get to a park or a forest, but even on an urban street.  Pay attention to the sounds you hear, the smells you smell.  Look up at the sky and observe how the hue of blue has changed from what you saw this summer.  It’s a thinner, paler blue that tapers to lighter colors at the edges.  Wherever you are, you can still look up at the sky.

No thinking – just walking, observing.  The only thing that exists is this moment. Do you hear a bird’s song, a dog’s bark, the wind’s whisper?  Do you feel a coolness in the breeze you didn’t feel last month?  Are you aware of the sound of your breathing, your heartbeat, your aliveness? 

This is you right now.  There is not tomorrow or yesterday.  When the next moment arrives, it is now.  There is only now.  I call this the “Holy Instant.”  I learned it from my dog.  They don’t worry about future problems or ruminate on errors of the past.  They only exist right now, and they rejoice in it. 

The best things in life, I learned from my dog.

Tell me, where will you go today to enjoy the right now?

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