I just came in from the woods. It is cold (relative to humidity which is making it feel colder), rainy and a breezy, not the most comfortable of days weather wise. My reason for being in the woods (yes, we all know I do NOT really NEED a reason to be in the woods, but today I actually have one) is to pull the taps, buckets and hoses from our tapped maple trees. We have taken enough and the season is coming to a close. All the signs are there, the buds are expanding and getting softer and fuzzy, the flavor of the sap is starting to change and the weather forecast tells me the nights below zero are over.
I love sapping/syruping season. It is literally more fun than Christmas to me and at the end, I am mostly ready. I am ready for the buds to explode into leaves, I am ready to focus on the garden and what we need to do to have that ready to go, and I am ready to spend my mental and emotional energy on other things… all the signs are there.
Sapping season, like all seasons, is just temporary, and destined to change. In life it’s like youth, or many relationships, or jobs, or places we live, hairstyles, pop bands, you get it, they are there, and we love them, and then there comes a time when all the signs are there, that it is simply time to move on without them.
As we navigate eclipse season, because it is NOT just one day my friends, honor the season you are in, what is it bringing to you, what has it needed from you, what parts of it will last inside of you, and what did you learn from your time there? AND, honor that you recognize the signs that it is time to continue, and what should come along, and what it is time to leave behind. We are more and more being asked by our Spirit to navigate the changes that let us leave the old behind and open up channels to our hopes, our dreams and what we deserve and deserves us (sent by Spirit) as we journey forward.
Like sapping season we have the amazingness of syrup that tends to our family all year long. There are always gifts we receive, sometimes they are more subtle than 4 gallons of syrup, but there are always things to use to grow and to learn, and to evolve into our Great selves.
There is also magic in knowing when it’s time to see the signs, to see the writing on the wall, to feel the sense of “this is done,” that lets you know you are being asked to move along to a new season.
When I pull the taps I leave a gift for the trees, a “thank you for sharing your gifts with us” that says I see you, I recognize your gifts. So in life, let us slow down a bit, to recognize the gifts, the lessons, the things that change us even when we’re not trying, and then let the season go.
Let’s be willing to feel the feels and see the signs that tell us it’s time to let go and change, and that it is time to move on to something new and wonderful.
Forever the journey, Anne