mother nature

Mother Earth’s True Calendar. Going with the Natural Flow of the Season Changes.

Posted by Barbara Techel

If we are in touch with Mother Nature, we begin to see signs and feel a shift toward autumn long before the calendar dubs it so, which is September 22nd this year.

This has definitely been the case for me noticing some changes I’m seeing on my morning daily walks. The photo above is from my backyard. This shrub sprouts white blossoms in the spring, then over the summer develops green berries, which then began to ripen as fall approaches.

I also sense it in my energy levels as the mornings are cooler now and we reach peak heat a little later each day. It’s a time also when my creativity levels are at their highest — such has been the case with different areas of my life of late.

Just this morning I was listening to Colette O’Neill of Bealtaine Cottage. She lives in west Ireland. Her YouTube channel is one I discovered a few weeks ago and I simply can’t get enough of it! She is a spunky sixty-five-year-old woman who over seventeen years ago bought three acres of barren land and a cottage because she’d felt this strong nudge to return to Ireland. With her own hands and a budget of almost zero, she began planting trees and over the years has planted over eleven hundred of them on her property!

Her videos are of her walking her land with her faithful border collie, Jack, in front of her on the many paths that weave through her property. As she walks and shares her enchanting land with viewers she talks about permaculture, Mother Earth, life, and an occasional rant about something she has strong opinions about.

In the particular video I was listening to today (she’s been doing them for nine years, so there’s a plethora of them!) she was talking about a yearly celebration in Ireland called Lughnasadh. It begins on August 1st a time when summer is beginning to wane, and the harvest season begins. It is based on the Pagan Wheel of the Year and on the sun’s cycle, and named after an ancient Celtic Irish god named Lugh.

What really perked my ears was when Colette shared how upset she gets with the man-made calendar of dubbing later in the season as the beginning of fall (September 22nd as is the case for 2021), when really, Mother Nature does not work that way.

This resonated throughout my entire being! I’ve realized how over the years I’ve felt these shifts of seasonal change much earlier than the calendar says it as so, thus putting off just being with the delicious sensations and feelings that fall brings for me — thinking I have to “wait” until the calendar says so.

Does this not speak to dulling our intuition also? When we are in connection with nature, this is what is the perfect guide for our intuition and feeling into what is occurring around us, instead of relying on a calendar — that and what our eyes actually see as Mother Nature slowly begins to reveal herself in the subtle changes all around us. Not only in the flowers, trees, and shrubs, along with the light changing but also in how the habits of the animals change too.

I’ve noticed with the birds that they don’t frequent my feeders as much lately. There is so much more in terms of insects, berries, and other things for them to enjoy right now. Despite my having just used my birthday money from my mom to purchase this new feeding station! But I know that in time they will return again as we move closer to winter.

Speaking of the habits of animals changing during different seasons, a frequent visitor this time of the year to the feeding station seems to only be the sassy squirrel! But hey, he has to eat too as I’m sure all the goodies he stored last season are waning in quantity too.

Lastly, it is quieter this time of year. I’ve especially noted that since the wrens have raised their families and have now flown the coop. I shall really look forward to when they return again next year! While the wrens are gone, the bees and butterflies are in abundance, and hummingbirds are dancing and feeding with much more frequency at the feeders. I’m also hearing the honks of Sandhill Cranes and Geese more often now too.

As I finish writing this post, and the door is open on Joyful Pause Cottage, you could hear a pin drop as it is that quiet.

And I’m feeling grateful to have learned of the Wheel of the Year as Colette shared in the video I listened to and the celebration of Lughnasadh. It really feels so much more in alignment with my own soul, so it is one I shall continue to follow.

Perhaps it will speak to you too? If so, welcome aboard Mother Nature’s calendar…

XO

Barb

                  

The Snow Drop Shrub and the Crow

Posted by Barbara Techel

I was drawn to the west window of my Joyful Pause Cottage when I entered it mid-morning. 

Waking at 6 a.m. I looked out my bedroom window to see about an inch of snow on the ground! I admit, for a moment, I was disgruntled. 

By the time I got out to my cottage the snow was already melting, though large, fluffy flakes are falling again as I write this.

But looking out the window I was drawn to the snow caps on the shrub in my perennial garden. It was so pretty and I dubbed it the Snow Drop Shrub.

I noted the metal crow looking at the tree as if seeing the same beauty I was seeing too. Crows are often related to the mysteries of life, transformation, and change.

While the calendar may say it’s Spring, Mother Nature and Crow were reminding me that I can either stay in the shadow of what should be or open to the beauty of what is right outside my window.

And as I end writing this post the sun is shining – all that transformation in just a matter of minutes! Another lesson that we can choose to let go of the struggle and trust that all is in perfect timing.

XO

Barb

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The Tree’s Shadow Had a Message for Me Today

Posted by Barbara Techel

I was sitting at my desk in my writing cottage this morning with a heavy heart. I couldn’t shake it. A moment later, I glanced out the west window and the tree outside caught my eye as it was casting a shadow. I couldn’t help but be pulled out of my chair and just stared at it for a few moments. I sensed it had a message for me.

Yesterday afternoon I had grabbed the watering can to fill it with water from the spigot on the side of our house so I could water some outside plants. It was then that I noticed under a nearby shrub baby bunnies snug as could be under it. I stayed at a distance, but from what I could tell it looked like four of them. My heart just burst with joy at the sweetness of their features with their little soft-looking faces, light pink noses, tiny ears, and eyes still closed. 

Such a beautiful thing to see – this new life right before my very eyes. For a moment a thought ran through my mind that in nature many newborn bunnies don’t always make it. But I quickly dismissed it.

Before I turned in for the night, it was still somewhat light out, so I peeked out the east window of our bedroom where I could see the shrub, but wasn’t able to see the little ones. Yet I knew they were there and it made my heart smile. I looked forward to just being able to check on them in this way until they left the nest.

But Mother Nature had other plans for the bunnies as I’d soon discover when I opened the blind on the window this morning. I won’t go into the details, but something had found them during the night.

While I know this is the cycle of life and how nature works, my heart ached for the loss of those bunnies. But as I sat thinking about it, I was being reminded that they were nourishment for another critter and perhaps that was the sole reason for their coming into this world at the time they did.

It was then that I had looked up after that thought and saw the tree casting this shadow— reminding me there is also beauty in the shadow – to feel love for something as I did for the bunnies and then to experience their passing—both emotions crack the heart wide open.

And it had me circling back to what we’ve all been going through in our world right now with the virus crisis – so much grieving as a collective and also in our own individual lives of what was and what is still yet to be known. Things we have had to learn to let go of in order for something new to come in. The lives that have been lost but perhaps left in the divine planning of it all to guide us to a deeper understanding of the preciousness of life.

It reminded me again of the bigger perspective of being able to hold it all—the difficult emotions and the beautiful ones— and still, remember and know that there is so much goodness in this world now and yet to come.

It was also another reminder for me to just move through these emotions I was feeling. No need to block them out or push them down, but just allow them to flow through me. And I came to a point that no matter the heartbreak of life, I’d not trade it for all the moments of happiness I get to experience too.

xo,

Barbara