Quotes from the Classics: August
Hello, August! Mid-to-late summer has a distinctly different feel than the first half of the season. As with everything, I’m finding I have to pay close attention to get in on the magic. On the surface, things are moving. Gardens are full and neighbors are frantically exchanging zucchinis and tomatoes from plants they’ve nurtured, plants that have now gone bonkers as a result. The bounty of fresh food, perfumed with summer’s carefree essence, initiates front porch conversations and handwritten thank you cards. Joy and exuberance emanate like the sparks of nearby bonfires glittering in the open night.
Hello, August! Mid-to-late summer has a distinctly different feel than the first half of the season. As with everything, I’m finding I have to pay close attention to get in on the magic. On the surface, things are moving. Gardens are full and neighbors are frantically exchanging zucchinis and tomatoes from plants they’ve nurtured, plants that have now gone bonkers as a result. The bounty of fresh food, perfumed with summer’s carefree essence, initiates front porch conversations and handwritten thank you cards. Joy and exuberance emanate like the sparks of nearby bonfires glittering in the open night.
And yet, there is something grounding in the energy too. The squirrels that spent much of their days chasing each other from branch to branch and up and down tree trunks, may feel the cooler night air or notice a leaf or two a little yellower than the rest toward the bottom of a favorite tree. They are gathering with a bit more intention now. There are mature plants with wide open faces basking in summer sun and also going to seed, appreciation for food and also commitment to storing it, gratitude for crystal blue skies and for the hoodies that keep us warm on cool nights.
Sunflower by Domenico Gentile
There are a million reflections of existence that have manifested themselves in the last months, and there are a million more displays of Life’s ever-and-always-becoming. This strange and beautiful August alchemy that blends and mixes rapture and responsibility, also produces something altogether new. It exists at the fringes of my awareness, probably overlooked, if not for writing this post, and yet as familiar as breath. And it is this: I am the one to prepare, to build, to move, to bring to fruition my part of a wondrous unfolding. I am the one to create my life. And if not me, then who?
I am part of this beautiful rhythm and so I carry forward a heart full of warm summer blessings, grateful for growth. I hold close what matters most to me, grounding deeper roots of understanding. I adopt the same spirit of determination and commitment I feel pervading this season and draw it within to strengthen and sustain me. And I open myself to a willingness to let all else fall away in the coming season, ever devoted to the summer that will come again as sure as the sun will rise in the East.
Tall grass and sunshine by Niklas Hamann
Check out these beautiful quotes from the classics that point to the essence of August. Enjoy!
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change.”
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
“If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man or woman grown, sat down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds, above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind would be filled with its glory, unable to grasp it, hardly believing that such things could be mere matter and no more. Like a dream of some spirit-land it would appear, scarce fit to be touched lest it should fall to pieces, too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away.”
“The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. ”
“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen