Ancient spiritual traditions of the world encourage the practitioner to pause at the balance point of the breath ~ the still point between breaths. Current science affirms that the nervous system takes a minute rest at the end of each breath, resetting our whole system toward calm abiding. We do not need to look far to discover who has taught us this lesson. We and all of creation, from our most primordial ancestors to the scientist in the lab, practice “biomimicry” with each breath: all breathing-beings imitate our Earth Mother. Now, after her long exhalation of summer’s beauty, bounty and beneficence, she is beginning to prepare for winter’s sleep. As with our breath, we can elongate this still point. Let’s pause now, to experience the balance point.

Equinox

Celestial geometry

maps star voyages

that navigate cosmic seas.

One beam of earth’s star

rays out low across land,

glances off stones

standing at sunset.

Now a telluric ritual begins

October Lady’s Tresses

~floral spears~

point to summer’s

final hours.

Lobelia wears a violet crown:

medicine for breath

and dreams.

Frost grapes and porcelain berries

shine plump, heavy,

tempt autumn’s fox.

Witness earth’s weight shift

as she moves toward quiet,

toward her fragrant rite

laying down

layering up

mounded, umber

oak and poplar leaves

bee balm flower stalks

beds of bracken.

This is her ceremony of soil;

magic at its most potent.

Winter’s death is a chrysalis

returning to its

embryonic state.

Fluid with possibility

~ pluripotent ~

earth turns toward sleep.

From my book of earth poems, A Litany of Wild Graces ~ Meditations on Sacred Ecology

Forward Wild Graces to a friend

There they’ll find Nesting Circles of Belonging ~ Family, Nature and Cosmos.