Maria's Seasons

It’s already November, I can hardly believe it but looking out my window the light touch of frost on the grass and the occasional floating leaf reminds me that in the Celtic calendar, at least, Winter is upon us.

I LOVE the Winter. I spent yesterday afternoon in my garden cutting grass, pruning back the lavender bush and scooping up leaves to make mulch. It felt tender and loving to be preparing everything for the season of darkness. The plants and flowers have loved me well all Summer filling my garden and my life with colour. Now it feels good to have a chance to love them back in my own way.

I read somewhere recently that Winter is the 2nd season in the natural calendar. We, human gardeners and farmers, tend to sow in the Spring but nature itself offers us its seeds in the Autumn. The Seeds fall to the ground, hide among the rotting leaves and slowly make their way down into the earth with the help of the rain and the snow all Winter long. Breaking the earth as they go they find their home and settle in before they open up in Spring, bloom in Summer and give birth to new seeds again in Autumn.

I like this idea of Nature’s Calendar better than the Roman one. During this Autumn there has been so much letting go for us… so many fallings, but now I think that maybe what has been happening is simply that we have been offering and receiving seeds - Seeds that have come through lives fully lived and fruits faithfully borne, seeds that are now resting in the earth of our being until they are ready to offer new life again.

Letting go of friends, loved ones, ways of being and doing, dreams, hopes and expectations is hard. I wonder if it is hard for a tree to shed it’s seeds and leaves? Now it’s time for the journey towards New life to begin. Here’s to the ‘Winter Wonderland’ that’s taking place in the earth beneath our feet even as I write.

Maria Garvey 01.11.06