For thousands of years, planetary pilgrims have welcomed the sacred event of the Fall Equinox with fires, songs, and celebrations. The time of the Fall Equinox just occurred this week at 7:21 AM PDT, on Thursday, September 22. It heralds a season of completion and contentment, a time of harvest. It is also a time of balance.
On the Fall Equinox, day equals night and light balances darkness. The sun enters Libra, which is the astrological sign of balance, and we are now on our journey into longer nights as we approach the Winter Solstice. The season is a metaphor for an inner process.
The Solstices and Equinoxes remind us of the balance of nature and its sacred rhythms. In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. Finding that rhythm is the balancing act that each of us is engaged in, whether we are in school, working, or are retired.
According to Author Wayne Muller: All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for sleep. There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter. There is a tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea.
In our bodies, the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the exhale and the inhale. We have lost this essential rhythm. Action and accomplishment are deemed better than rest. Doing something is thought to be better than doing nothing. Our desire to succeed causes us to lose our rest and thus lose our way. Even in retirement, some work frantically to stay busy.
I have been working on balance between work and rest in my life. That has been an ongoing challenge and spiritual practice since I entered the ministry 35 years ago, especially in the early years when I was a single parent and had young children at home.
I think balance is such an important subject in this time of great change in the world and in our own lives. We are always engaged in finding balance. We balance between self and others…between professional life and personal life…between work and play. We balance between no television and too much television, between listening to politics and tuning out politics, between too much exercise and no exercise, dieting and not dieting. And on it goes.
This balancing is always happening amidst change. And just when we get it all balanced, the cosmic forces suddenly shift everything. We are constantly dealing with the death of the old and the birth of the new and trying to keep it all together—all balanced in the process.
Sabbath is a time for sacred rest; it may be a Holy Day—the seventh day of the week as in the Jewish tradition, or the first day of the week as for Christians. But Sabbath time may also be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk—any sacred time that provides nourishment and rest. Take time to honor the Sabbath in this Fall Season. Remember your times of rest and play so you can find balance.
Love & Blessings,
Rev. Kathy