September Sweetness
Nature on the move, a tender poem, and an activity for taking stock of changing seasons.
Happy September!
Fall is on the way! Here are three events to watch for, 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. Fall Bird Migration has begun.
New birds will be showing up in backyards, parks, fields, and neighborhoods. Some take up residence for weeks, or will stay for an entire winter season, depending on their species where you live.
For west coasters - and particularly Portland residents - one of the most extraordinary migratory events is the vaux’s swift migration southward from their summer breeding ground of the Pacific Northwest. As many as 35,000 can gather to roost in large chimneys during this season, forming a tornado-like funnel around dusk as they enter.
2. Autumn Equinox
This year the autumnal equinox occurs on Sunday, September 22. At that moment, the Sun will exactly above the Equator and no matter where you live, and day and night are approximately the same length.
3. A VERY special “Super” Harvest Moon!
The full moon closest to the autumn equinox is called the Harvest Moon. And this year it occurs very soon, on Tuesday, Sept 17. The name comes from the time before electricity, when farmers would depend on the Moon’s light to harvest their crops late into the night, before the first frost. Rising shortly after sunset, this moon can often appear especially bright and orange in hue.
This year’s Harvest Moon is very unusual.
First, it’s a “Supermoon” - the second of four that mark this fall season! Supermoons occur when a moon is at or near the closest point in its orbit, in this case causing the harvest moon to look dramatically more radiant and larger than usual.
And second, this year’s super moon will have a partial lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth, sun, and moon are lined up so that Earth casts its shadow on the moon. The lunar eclipse on Tuesday will be only a slight one, but its still an exciting phenomenon.
Two Quotes for September
1.
For those who love to think of autumn as the spooky season, a scene setting quote about September from Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot:
“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”
2.
“First Fall,” by Maggie Smith, is a poem about motherhood and the ephemerality - and melancholy - of the season:
I’m your guide here. In the evening-dark
morning streets, I point and name.
Look, the sycamores, their mottled,
paint-by-number bark. Look, the leaves
rusting and crisping at the edges.
I walk through Schiller Park with you
on my chest. Stars smolder well
into daylight. Look, the pond, the ducks,
the dogs paddling after their prized sticks.
Fall is when the only things you know
because I’ve named them
begin to end. Soon I’ll have another
season to offer you: frost soft
on the window and a porthole
sighed there, ice sleeving the bare
gray branches. The first time you see
something die, you won’t know it might
come back. I’m desperate for you
to love the world because I brought you here.
Slowing Down: Try this for the month of September
The amount of sunlight in each day changes more rapidly around the Equinoxes than during the Solstices. Pick a time of day in the evening or morning to take notice of this change.
About once or twice a week at that time, step outside and observe.
What does the light look like? What is the temperature? Where is the sun located? What does your shadow look like?
Each time you go out to make your observations, write them down in a notebook.
Credit to James Clear for his very useful 3-2-1 structure newsletter structure that inspired this post.