I want to celebrate New Year right now, as the season changes, new terms start and we gather ourselves in to prepare for a different season.
I've never been very impressed by the celebrations of New Year at that arbitrary date in mid winter. It has become a very noisy and rather self congratulatory occasion.
But this moment, when the mornings and evenings are colder and the sun has lost some of its power, when the darkness arrives a bit earlier and the plants are creating seeds, berries and fruits in preparation for their winter rest and next year’s growing and blossoming, now is the time to party, to draw together our communities and our families and encourage each other to get ready for winter.
Encourage---- a beautiful word from the french “coeur” = heart. Lets fill our hearts ready to go into the dark, ready to pick up the threads of work and labour and study.
I have loved this long hot summer. I know----global warming, drought, water shortage, but at the same time, for me, it has been blissful to go barefoot, to dress in moments, to dry clothes in a couple of hours and to spend all my time outside.
This week I have been very aware of the changes, as I was camping as they happened: the sound of rain on canvas, the need for extra layers in the morning. A far cry from the week before when I was also camping and searching out areas of shade, splashing cold water on my face and moving slowly through the heat, relishing its caress, recognising its power.
I remember so clearly the end of summer as a child. I never enjoyed school, and my holidays were free and spacious, so, for me, the preparations for the start of a new school year were a time of grief. How I would have welcomed some recognition of the transition, some support to negotiate the change from breathing out into the countryside to gathering back into autumn and term time. (Oh! those school shoes, even my toes were cramped by the requirements of term time.)
So, as you search out your slippers, check that the winter woolies haven’t been eaten by moths and start thinking about warm soups and stews, let's have a party, a “farewell to summer” party, a courage building party, and fill our hearts with summer sun to see us through to spring.
Maybe this is even the time to make our “new year resolutions”. The time to draw strength to achieve our dreams and overcome our challenges.
A song we sang in for autumn in the kindergarten:
Summer goodbye
Summer goodbye
You may no longer stay
Autumn is on the way
Summer goodbye
