September Equinox 2026: Rest and renew

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It has been two weeks since the Equinox on September 22, 5:05pm PT. How has the new season been welcoming you? I was welcomed with forced hours of rest, renewal, and self-care when I fell ill that week. As a parent, these are things that I seldom am able to claim, but having no choice made me see how much I’ve treated rest and renewal as something that was dispensable if my commitments required my energy elsewhere.

Taking time to rest, get quiet, and allow our bodies to process whatever energies, emotions, or inner conflicts are moving through them can uncover deeply buried beliefs about ourselves or our lives that we’ve refused or otherwise been unable to see. Sometimes illness comes to us and uncovers such a belief so that we can finally know it and address it. 

For myself, I’d been aware of a grief that would linger, despite having healed childhood and ancestral grief and trauma and releasing grief that I carried for others, including Nature. But only in the midst of this Equinox illness did a core wound clearly appear to be attended to.

For now it asks for nothing but my acknowledgment and my gentle, attentive care. I cannot push to a solution, knowing that I need to take time to explore its origins and its needs so as not to leave any of the wound unhealed. This awareness will, I hope, help me to be more willing to take rest and quiet moments when and where I need them. I hope that you, too, are able to take these moments for yourself this season.

In lieu of a full newsletter this Equinox, I’ve uploaded some old posts, including Spiraling Grief into Transformation, In Reciprocity with the Natural World, and Waking Up to Work with Stillness. Although they were written in the 2020 moment, I believe that they still carry a resonance today. I hope you give yourself a few minutes to see if they resonate with you.

Wishing you the blessings of the shoulder season, wherever you are 🍂💫

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