La Balance

Here we are at the end of summer, moving towards the dark and cold of the year. The Wheel of the Year is turning and with it are we, within.

The autumn equinox comes along with the stars in the sky known as Libra, the scale to weigh in our deeds. The sign of Libra is often depicted as Justice holding the scales of balance, here.

We are back to school yet still holding on to the long, luxuriant days of summer. The Bleeding Hearts are brown and shriveling. The tomatoes have given up their fruits. The autumn lanterns are warmly aglow amidst the decaying leaves of the plants that grew them.



 Mother Earth is calling her children home where they have much work to do to conserve the concentrated energies generated over the summer into the deep dark days of winter ahead.

I've been enjoying Lynn Jericho's Inner Year class on Balance. My relationship with balance has demanded my attention this month with lingering dizziness that came from many spinning rides at the fair.

This is my third round of inner balance work with Lynn Jericho and each year it seems that life is way out of balance for me in September, those long, lazy days of summer are hard to compress into the shorter days of autumn, so much so that it is hard for me to find the balancing point to really focus on the class.

We want to stay up late and be out of doors and linger at the beach with friends yet school is calling, there is food to dry, freeze and can, the garage needs a good clean out before winter, the grass needs to be cut, the garden put to bed, and work beckons. Where is the balance?

Part of me is pulling in. I've made my first cup of hot tea and took out the crock pot for a long and slow cooking of beef to eat with chili and nachos. I nearly built a fire last weekend to take the chill out of the house yet wrapped us up in warm woolen blankets instead. I'm not ready to close the windows.

The woolen picnic blanket has become a robe to snuggle under to ward off the night chill at night time football games.

I was glad to find an e-mail from Donna Simmons with a recent blogpost in which she offers reassurance for all homeschoolers, new and seasoned, on what she refers to as the September Boom or Bust, here.

When I saw Carrie Dentdter's recent post over on The Parenting Passageway on the Balance chapter, from her book study of The Well Balanced Child, I decided to join in the conversation on The Well Balanced Child. This book has been on my shelf for a few years and is one I have picked up and put down many times. It is a blog post in progress. Thank you Carrie.

How is the balance of your life?