Summer is the season of certainty. The Apollonian sun bleaches away gradations, leaving us with just the clean contrast of sand and surf. But real life is more like Fall.
Meditation: On Falling
This is the dappled, Dionysian time. Whether we're in school or long out of it, in autumn we instinctively gear up for new beginnings even as the leaves turn and fall. Like ourselves, autumn is a dappled thing, a "landscape plotted and pieced." Back at home, we challenge ourselves to adorn, but also Cure. The days get shorter, but we yearn to do more in them. A crispness in the air quickens our blood, but the plants stop bursting forth. And we remember that a terrible fissure can appear in the most perfect fall day.
What do we do with a season like this, of regrouping and new beginning, loss and harvest?
I don't know, but William Burroughs may have a hint when he says, "When you cut into the present the future leaks out." Or, as Laurie Anderson puts it,
You're walking.
And you don't always realize it, but you're always falling.
With each step you fall forward slightly.
And then catch yourself from falling.
Over and over, you're falling.
And then catching yourself from falling.
And this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.--Laurie Anderson, "Walking and Falling." Big Science.
Happy Fall.
Photo credit: Memotions
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Fall/Autumn is in my opinion the beginning. Its when we take inventory of what we've done and not done, who we are and who we would like to be.
Sean
Blessings on those who go home throught the dark Autumn nights.
-Robert Bly.
view SeanG's profile
Shannon, you are a gifted observer and writer. I never fail to find inspiration in your thoughts. Thanks so much for sharing them, for sticking with your little AT gig.
view Abbe's profile
.....thank you...
view eveapple's profile
that reminded me of a bit from one of my fav books.
---------------
There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
The first part is easy.
All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.
That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.
Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.
One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.
It is notoriously difficult to prise your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal. Hence most people's failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.
If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momentarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phyllum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddenly spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.
This is a moment for superb and delicate concentration.
Bob and float, float and bob.
Ignore all considerations of your own weight and simply let yourself waft higher.
Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful.
They are most likely to say something along the lines of, 'Good God, you can't possibly be flying!'
It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.
Waft higher and higher.
Try a few swoops, gentle ones at first, then drift above the treetops breathing regularly.
DO NOT WAVE AT ANYBODY.
When you have done this a few times you will find the moment of distraction rapidly becomes easier and easier to achieve.
You will then learn all sorts of things about how to control your flight, your speed, your manoeuvrability, and the trick usually lies in not thinking too hard about whatever you want to do, but just allowing it to happen as if it was going to anyway.
You will also learn about how to land properly, which is something you will almost certainly cock up, and cock up badly, on your first attempt.
There are private flying clubs you can join which help you achieve the all-important moment of distraction. They hire people with surprising bodies or opinions to leap out from behind bushes and exhibit and/or explain them at the critical moments. Few genuine hitch-hikers will be able to afford to join these clubs, but some may be able to get temporary employment at them.
— Douglas Adams, 'The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy'
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I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep. ... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.
-- May Sarton, from Journal of a Solitude
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