I am not an anniversaries person. For some reason, dates do not trigger in me the powerful associations they evoke in others. Even the dates I would like to hold as special stubbornly resist my attempts to make them so. If I enjoy times like Christmas it is because of the energy and effort others offer as their gift to bring colour, joy and community to us all. The date itself feels strangely irrelevant. Instead, it is the sounds, sights, smells and tastes that entice me into memory and a sense of connection over time.
With this one exception. I awake on the morning of Autumn Equinox with a delight-filled sense of peaceful energy and thankfulness. There is no need to do anything; just a powerful sense of being equal to the moment; a profound appreciation for the gift of being. And, as the day progresses, a sense of awe at the gifts of balance that come to me at this time in the most unexpected and unlooked-for ways.
For some, a hemisphere away, this day ushers in a new year and the promise of light and hope. And while I do not share their season, the world feels somehow new to me as well. The time of balance welcomes me into its vast, connection-filled and life-giving silence.