Harbingers & Harvests

Asters are blooming on the land. Autumn harbingers. It comes around fast. I can see how people become attached to distinct seasons. We have them in California but they are obviously far more subtle.

I find it both fascinating & the most natural thing in the world that our bodies are tapped into these cycles. Before the first leaf turns, before the first aster blooms my body is pulled toward the next season. One day I look around and think “it feels like fall”. It can be the most average looking summer day and yet Autumn is “in the air”.

The waterfall on our land. Rains have been sparse but when we have them water thunders down the rocks.

Back in the city I find the garden cruising along…humming & buzzing. There is lots to harvest. Good soil is storing water that’s available to the plant roots. Canopy & undergrowth, layers of life sustaining itself in my absence. Bees & butterflies, hover flies, dragonflies, beetles, toads & birds live in and visit this garden. I’ve made them a little haven. I feel good about it. It gives me agency. It’s what I do instead of curling up in the fetal position as the climate crisis goes all to hell and I read about it in the news everyday.

I feel genuine affection for the small buzzing things, the flying, lumbering, crawling & wriggling beings. I believe they are sentient. I believe there is far more going on here than science has yet to prove.