Journalling through August

Journalling through the Seasons #1: noticing the last month of summer, journalling prompts and a poem by Mary Oliver

Welcome to Journalling throught the Seasons. The seasons are a place of wonder for me. They make me notice and slow down. This is a simple way of connection to inner and the outside. These letters will arrive at the 1st of every month, and they are divided into three sections: the season we are in, seasonal journalling prompts and words for poems, and a quote or poem to follow the season.

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August belongs to the summer months and it is on the 1st that Lùnastal is celebrated, as it is the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. It is the begining of the harvest season and where we celebrate what we are about to gather for the colder months, like grains, berries and fruit.

It is the time when harvesters work far past sunset, collecting barley, rye, oat and wheat before the days of rain come. In turn, young hares play on the freshly cut fields. Trees are heavy with plums and prunes, as the blueberries fade from the forest, giving way for the chanterelles. Hedges with brambles are full of dark purple blackberries. It’s time to gather the abundance and find a way to have stretch through winter. Plums, prunes, rosehip and blackberries can be frozen or made into jams, chutney, cakes, cobbler or crumble.

As the butterflies flutter in the golden air, a sense a nostalgia sets in. Soon one season will slowly turn into another one, especially as the first cold evening arrives. At this time, the mind can start to wander through memories of woven into summery freedom, perhaps all the way back to your childhood. Perhaps to that evening, where you went for ice cream, walked on the beach bare foot, surrounded by the salty air and sunset colours. Or late afternoon bike ride where you let the fresh air run through your air.

It is in August when the sun turns golden, almost as a transition towards autumn colours. It reminds us of the fleetingness of the seasons and how we have to try to stay in the day we are in, to enjoy and notice all the small transitions in nature.

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Journalling Prompts

1. What are you harvasting this month? Perhaps, you have unintentionally sown a seed that has grown into something unexpected.

2. August is usually a month of holiday. What glimmers and memories are you keeping? And are there any glimmers you would like to make this month?

3. What seasonal shifts have you noticed recently? If you haven’t had time and if you have time, go for a little walk where ever you are and then a week later again, just to notice the small changes, or simple staring out of the window can do.

4. Is there a feeling you have been keeping inside? Nature lets imperfection grow, allowing it to take space. What can you give space for? Do you want to keep it, let it go, or can’t you? All the options are okay, some things take longer to fade, but writing about them down allows the mind not think about them, because the journal now remembers for us.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a different season that the one in nature. If you feel you are not starting a season of harvest, ask yourself: in which season am I? Am I tending to roots (winter), am I sowing (spring), am in the middle of something fierce (summer) or am I ready to harvest (autumn)?

Poetry Words

If you are choosing to write poems instead, here are a few words that can inspire a seasonal piece:

• Blackberries ~ plums ~ prunes

• Golden light ~ sunset ~ grain fields

• Sand ~ bare foot ~ salty

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I read this poem some months ago and it brought back childhood memories of dark red tinted fingers, scratched arms and a happy belly full of delicious, sweet blackberries.

August by Mary Oliver

When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend

all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking

of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body

accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among

the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.

This series is intended to be behind the paid wall, but I will keep the first three months open for everyone (August, September and October). After that, I will occasionally make this available to everyone.

The next letter will arrive on September 1st.

On August 15th, I will send you a thread where you can read what I have written and share your own words too. It will be called Words from August.