October Sweetness
The biggest supermoon of the year, a cozy fall poem, and a moondance
Halfway through October already? Let’s take some time to savor this gorgeous season before we bid it adieu.
Here are three events to watch for in the remaining half of the month, two quotes for the season, and one grounding activity to get you slowing down in the month ahead.1
Three Events to Celebrate this Month
1. The biggest Supermoon of the year
Full moon lovers, rejoice! It’s been a special past few months. The full moon every month since August has been a Supermoon, which occurs when a moon is at or near the closest point in its orbit, causing it to look dramatically more radiant and larger than usual.
This Thursday, October 17, will mark the Hunter Moon, which is the largest and brightest in a series of supermoons that will end with the Beaver Moon later in November.
2. The leaves are changing
In many places in the northern hemisphere, October is synonymous with fall foliage. By the end of the month, even the most southern points in the continental United States will begin seeing some fall colors in their deciduous trees.
This animated, week-by-week map, is a great resource for figuring out when the trees will be peaking near you - though there’s no reason to stop gawking when the trees are “peak.” Some of the most beautiful colors arrive late in the season!
3. Monarch Butterfly Migration
Did you know that monarch butterflies are migrating thousands of miles right now to overwinter in the warmer climates of coastal California and Mexico?
This handy guide from the US Fish and Wildlife Service features five stop locations where you can find eastern monarch migration.
To learn more about western monarch migration - and the efforts to protect them and their overwintering habitats - check out this video from the California State Parks Foundation:
Two Quotes for October.
With the full moon coming this week, what do you think? Could it be a marvelous night for a moon dance? Here’s a lyric snippet from Van Morrison’s 1970 classic “Moondance” which you can hum along to here:
Well, it's a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skiesAnd all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
You know I'm tryin' to please to the calling
Of your heartstrings that play soft and lowYou know the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
You know the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush
2.
“A Song for Autumn,” by Mary Oliver, is a poem for those of us who find a comfort in the transformative power of autumn, as we settle in and wait for the winter to come:
In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come – six, a dozen – to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
Slowing Down: Try this for the month of October
Chance are, if you live in the northern hemisphere, the leaves have already been changing colors where you live.
So right now, as you begin to notices the changes, think back to last year. Was there a particular tree in your neighborhood that really stood out during the season’s peak?
Get your calendar out right now, and make a weekly date with that specific tree, and visit it on those dates.
Take time to notice it go through all its stages. Try documenting with a camera on with each visit.
… and finally… let’s have a Moondance one more time!
Credit to James Clear for his very useful 3-2-1 structure newsletter structure that inspired this post.