Last Sip of Summer

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

Native Purple Asters

The Asters bloom and winter approaches. Blackberries hang from the vine in abundance at this time of dearth for the bees, whose primary food in the Pacific Northwest is the blackberry blossom. Such is the natural rhythm of things — some collect the windfall while others move on for a meal. We all have our seasons.

I try not to attach stories of struggle in my mind to the bees’ experience. Why find reason for despair when no knows what bees think and feel? Perhaps they have a generations-long acceptance of this season, the sacred gathering of autumn nectar and pollen.

I open myself to a quiet and deep satisfaction in this final wave of summer flowers. Sipping the last of the slanting sun from the sky, I collect the tools of summer and gather a handful of raspberries to eat one by one.

What are your last sips of summer? What does satisfaction feel like in your heart as the seasons change?