Autumn Equinox

Autumn has certainly arrived and it feels a little damp and dreary today after the balmy days of summer that have been generous and long. Last night at choir, we pretty much finished the first of our new Christmas songs and it didn’t feel too odd singing it in September as it was dark and rainy outside.

We celebrated the equinox in heartwarming style with the wonderful staff and children of St Mary’s RC Primary School in Grimsby. The whole school formed an enormous circle in the playground to sing their favourite song, The Power, while we filmed them for our Sun and Moon Festival community film.

Community is at the heart of this season, of Mabon, the moment where autumn really arrives. Whether you attend church and share in a harvest festival supper, or are taking in your geraniums and fuchsias for a winter rest, or walking a labyrinth, taking a spirit journey or otherwise marking this tender and lovely time, may the peace of the season be with you.

It’s worth remembering that amidst the chaos of the public sphere at present and the insanity around the whole Brexit debacle, that all things pass. Here’s a poem from A Requiem to remind us of how small we are.

How Waves Work

Under a big sky

greater than the reach of day

are all light’s colours;

a bright abundance,

reflected in sheets of watery light.

Waves work on the shore,

a harmonious polyphony 

of sound, light and air,

crossing miles of sea

to end here.

Under a big sky

waves reflect us,

energetic flow;

universal life force, 

the ocean running through.

Salt touches all things

turns us to fins and gills

breathing the beginning,

place of origin.

Remember we were born

from the great nothing.

Like waves 

we form, rise and break

into darkness.

Each of us mundane,

miraculous,

mutable.