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August Newsletter – The effervescence of summer
Do you feel like tossing everything aside when the weather turns warm? In the fall and winter we tend to
slow down and may look within ourselves more. Our internal body compass may tell us to ______ more and _______ less. In the summer we’re out there doing and enjoying what the good weather and long, long days have to offer us. After 18 years on the West Coast, I’m still amazed that there’s still light in the sky at 10:30 at night and that it begins to get light again around 4 a.m. It seems kind of a shame to sleep!
In his book The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature, Steven Foster describes profiles for each season that coincide with our developmental stages. The Summer profile represents physicality, earthiness, instinct, playfulness, emotions and innocence. It has a strong sense of the child and enjoys a good deal of earth contact. Fall people are introspective, as is fall itself, crave solitude and possess empathy. Winter represents work, community, family, and responsibility, while spring energy is creative and imaginative.
For some months now I’ve found I’ve had the desire to intersperse my indoor, sedentary activities with more active outdoor ones. At times I’ve found myself unexpectedly rising from my chair and walking into the garden to pull weeds or just to walk around soaking up the atmosphere and the sights. As the days lengthened into summer my yearning to be outside became stronger than ever. I would spend every day in nature if I could. I sit with the door of my little studio open, no matter what the temperature, so I can see the little patch of grass and flower garden outside my door.
Beginning my day with my coffee and a thick slab of raisin bread on the back porch, I try to intersperse my office hours with gardening and painting the outside of the house. On Saturdays I give myself permission to step away from my writing, admin. and client sessions, and usually spend about 10 hours outside. I just can’t get enough of the outdoors, or of moving my body and working with my hands it seems.
Foster says that summer is the time to be in our bodies with all that entails, and to plant our feet firmly on the ground. Through connecting with our bodies, we can then connect with the sun, the trees and the earth.
How is summer manifesting for you? Do you yearn to be outdoors? If so, what form does this take for you?
Announcements:
Rejuvenate Yourself – Restore Body, Mind, Spirit
Oct. 31st – Nov. 2nd 2008 – Chaster House, Gibsons, BC
Relax, restore and rejuvenate yourself with Ellen and other like-minded women by the sea.
Women’s Spirituality Retreat
Nov. 21st – 23rd, 2008 – Chaster House, Gibsons, BC
With Ellen Besso & Terri Scallon
Deepen your personal spirituality & reconnect with your passion for life in a safe setting with other women.
To register, or for more information on either retreat:
800 961 1364 or 604 886 1916
Are those your roses? They are beautiful! What kind of rose is that?
I have enjoyed the warmer months. I did some gardening. The first vegetable garden that I have had in many many years, and I was pleased with the results.
The season sure has flown by though. Here we are at the gate of Fall.
Enjoyed your post!
Rita
I sure do. I’m severely disabled and too fragile for safe transport by any means. In Decemmber it will be five years since I’ve left the house. And because one feature of my rare disease is “a headache” that’s lasted about seven years and responds badly to light, the house has to be closed up all the time.
In five years I had one glimpse of the sky for about three seconds, when they were installing an AC near my bed. Brought tears to my eyes.
Even the relatively slight amount of contact with nature that modern humans typically have is a wonderful thing.
Hi Paul: Thank you so much for taking the time to write. I’m glad the newsletter resonated with you. I wish you the very best with your health. I hope that you can be helped by whatever means is available out there – new medication, acupuncture, homeopathy, etc.
Ellen
Hi Rita: I’m glad to hear your veges worked out so well. Yes, they’re my roses, but I can’t tell you what they are, except that they’re miniatures. I bought them as a very tiny plant, I think in the grocery store & had them in a very large planter in N. Van. before putting them in the ground here on the Sunshine Coast.
Cheers
Ellen