Lately I’ve been feeling the end of summer blues. My old ornamental cherry tree keeps dropping its leaves. And it’s only mid-August! The heat and humidity of deep summer has switched into cool nights and damp mornings. My lazy summer seems to be turning a corner, picking up steam. I sense that summer is ending and something else wants to happen.
But I don’t feel ready to switch gears. My work had been on a track which has suddenly turned a corner and now I feel I’ve lost my balance. I’m apprehensive in a vague, undefined way. I experience this sense of loss like a small death.
Singing the Blues
What I know is that I need to provide an active force to start a new octave. However, I find I want to be passive, hang onto the end of summer and be lazy. But this doesn’t feel like Work. This feels like the end of summer blues. Do I shake this off and plunge into something new? Or do I acknowledge the blues by allowing time for my energy to settle and attend to what is waiting around the corner?
For instance, I can still sit in the sun and read a book in the backyard but do it intentionally. At the same time, I can accept the shift of pace that happens at the end of summer and stay alert for receiving a new direction. Let it come to me instead of rushing towards what I think the direction should be. In a sense, I’m being actively receptive inside my end of summer blues, rather than caught and identified with it.
A New Color
Work doesn’t happen by itself. It needs a catalyst. But I’ve been here before. So often I rush into things, try to make them happen. That is my pattern and my MO. How can this time be different? It is way more work for me to wait and discern what is in front of me. What is being asked for? Who needs me? What is needed? How can I help?
If I didn’t experience the end of summer blues, I wouldn’t have this work of recognizing it and using it as a catalyst. Of acknowledging where I am in myself and choosing my response. I wouldn’t be able to turn the summer blues into a different color.
2 thoughts on “The End of Summer Blues”