The End of a Season

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.” - Albert Camus

In between these poetic quotes, I am going to pause for a moment and remind everybody that some of these photos make more sense, alone and in context, when viewing them enlarged. Simply click on the image and voila! it's like magic - they get bigger. Then hit the back arrow to return to the blog.

“Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms Without the aid of the Seasons.” – Kahlil Gibran

What exactly is a season, anyway? Is it the division of a calendar by four, astronomically orchestrated by those power couples, the Solstices and the Equinoxes?

“No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland

Eep, I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but in Oregon, the weather decides her own moods and a timekeeper she is not. We’d prefer to think of the seasons as being equal, the 12 pages of the calendar neatly categorized into four symmetrical periods of three months each.

Well, let me tell you, that is not how Mother Nature reveals herself around here. Winter is the longest season by far, starting in November and stretching out her stay until Spring finally pounces like a roaring kitten in April, showering us with rain, hail, snow, fitful sun and flowers from the bulb.

If brevity is King, then Summer is our Monarch, arriving in July and leaving in July. Autumn comes at his earliest convenience, unpacking in August and staying until Halloween.

And let me make this clear, Halloween is over my friends. Do I really need to state the obvious? Get rid of your putrefying pumpkins, it’s the end of the season!

“What you have to remember is that baseball isn’t a week or a month but a season – and a season is a long time.” - Chuck Tanner

In quest of defining “a season,” it seems to encompass more than weather patterns. It is a time of year dictated by certain activities, such as sports, hunting, fishing, television, shopping (oooh, Black Friday is almost here), planting, harvesting and worshipping.

Autumn-into-Winter has many overlapping seasons, the first of which is ushered in by its fashionable rule: No white shoes after Labor Day.

In quick succession, our days are governed by Back-to-school sales, Grandparents Day, Stepfamily Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, International Day of Peace, the Jewish Holy Days, the Equinox, Johnny Appleseed Day, Constitution Week, National Hispanic Heritage Month,

Native American Day, National Children’s Day, Leif Erikson Day, Columbus Day, White Cane Safety Day, National Boss Day, Sweetest Day, United Nations Day, Mother-in-Law’s Day, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National School Lunch Week, National Forest Products Week, Halloween, All Saints Day, Veteran’s Day, Chakra Girl’s Birth Day, and Thanksgiving. Phew!

Of course, there’s more, but let me sum up by saying, no wonder we feel overwhelmed.

Thus far, we’ve established that there are four main seasons, plus all the Holiday/Activity seasons, but what is the Fifth Season or the New Season? I’m still trying to sort that out.

Changing direction by degrees, to season is to add flavor, either to food or conversation. Wood sometimes needs to be seasoned, the wealthy often season elsewhere, people are seasoned by experience and this week we bid adieu to the final outdoor Saturday Market for the 2009 season.

As one season ends, keep in mind we have others to anticipate. There’s Clean Up Your Moldy Pumpkin Day, AIDs Awareness Day, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Human Rights Day, Kimmm Day, National Regifting Day, First Day of Winter, Christmas, Kwanza, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve…

“To everything (Turn Turn Turn), There is a season (Turn Turn Turn) and a time to every purpose, under Heaven.”- Pete Seeger and King Solomon

Interview with Chakra Girl

As the Everyday Anthropologist, I’m studying humans in their natural habitat. I’ve invited Katie Custer a.k.a. “Chakra Girl” to help me learn more about human emotions and their effect on the personal energy field.

Welcome Katie and thank you for coming out on this cold, wintery day. To introduce this topic, what can you tell me about your work?

CG: I’m a massage therapist in a chiropractic clinic, I’ve written a memoir called Break/Through, which focuses on how I lost 90 pounds through healing my energy body (the chakra system), and since July 2008, I’ve been hosting a weekly radio show called “Chakra Girl Radio.”

FCK: Whoa, 90lbs? That’s a significant amount of chubby. How did you lose it?

CG: I started journaling and discovered that every time I released something about feeling upset, depressed, ashamed or insecure, I didn’t feel like eating. That surprised me because all my life I felt like eating even when I wasn’t hungry. I was eating to comfort myself and the more I ate the fatter I got. I finally acknowledged that my overeating was not about the food and that my behavior had made me obese.

I was also learning about the chakra system and how my energy field was trying to communicate with me in a structured way. Communication began with a feeling in my gut that something was bothering me. If I ignored my gut, then communication came stronger through my emotional reactions. If I didn’t face my feelings, then the energy of those emotions would build up until I acted out. For me, that was comforting myself through overeating. When I let my behavior get out of control, the message from my energy body finally manifested as all this extra weight in my physical body.

FCK: What was the message?

CG: That my energy body was holding onto a lot of secrets. I finally tell them in my memoir Break/Through.

FCK: What is this “energy body” you keep talking about?

CG: Basically, the energy body is made of seven major energy centers that begin at the base of the spine and continue to the top of the head. These energy centers are called “chakras” which is Sanskrit for “wheel” or “circle.” Western Medicine focuses primarily on the physical body, while Eastern philosophy also considers the existence of energy within the human body. By paying attention to what’s happening in the body’s energy field, you’re more likely to find the root cause of imbalance, whether the disturbance (or illness) is recent or long term.

FCK: When humans attend to their energy and emotions, can they assist in healing themselves?

CG: Exactly! In practical terms, you can learn where there are imbalances in your energy field and with patience you can learn how to address those imbalances to feel better.

FCK: Now that it’s winter and we’re in the midst of the Holiday Season, is there any one chakra in particular we should pay special attention to?

CG: Yes. In my experience, whenever we express or stifle ourselves, the 5th or throat chakra is being activated. This activation takes the form of healthy release or blocked toxic energy.

FCK: So is there a connection between the winter Holidays, the throat chakra and getting sick, such as catching a cold, coughing, or overeating and drinking?

CG: Yes. Physical symptoms related to blocked throat chakra energy include coughing, toothaches, sore throats, stiff necks and swollen sinuses. Behaviors such as overeating, drinking and smoking too much, yelling, using abusive language or non-stop talking stem from imbalances in the 5th chakra. This pinwheel of energy located along the spine in the neck/throat area, affects as far up as the sinuses and as far down as the upper chest including throat, mouth, teeth, gums, thyroid, trachea, tonsils, the cervical vertebrae in the neck, vocal chords, TMJ and the skeletal system.

The healthy release of throat chakra energy brings balance and feeds self-expression. Communication, eating, singing, writing, talking, performing, playing music and speaking your truth are all 5th chakra. Now that’s a big one. For example, if you see a particularly stressful time approaching during the holidays, say a family gathering, you might feel like you have to stifle yourself around certain individuals. Some people react by becoming very quiet and others become unusually chatty, or it might be tempting to self-soothe with extra food, drink or smoke.

FCK: So what about all those tempting sweets and drinks that are offered in this season? Are you worried that you’ll overeat and gain all that weight back?

CG: By releasing what’s bothering me onto my journal pages, the blocked energies (or imbalances) are no longer held captive in my physical body, so I don’t need to eat to feed them. My first rule of food and drink is to respect my body by deliberately tasting. I find it impossible to fully enjoy a bite of food and overindulge because it takes time to taste what I’m feeding myself.

FCK: How might a person find balance when everything feels rushed or while spending time around people who aren’t so fun?

CG: By carving out five minutes to write down any concerns (why you are feeling stressed), it is possible you can meet your own needs and at the same time find yourself feeling calmer. This means when you arrive at the Holiday gathering, you now have less stress to carry in the door. When you take care of yourself first, whether by expressing your feelings through creating art, talking with friends, exercising, drinking tea, meditating, doing yoga or anything else that brings you joy and makes you feel good, you’ll be more able to enjoy the company of family and friends and see this once stressful event as a time to celebrate your relationships.

There are other forms of healthy expression using the 5th chakra energy that will help to release holiday stress, which can include gathering a group of friends to go caroling, especially if you have never done it before. Participating in a holiday play, even if it is in your own living room, or reading stories from scripture or traditional holiday stories to family and friends.

Another fun way of celebrating the energy of your throat chakra is to dress it up. This is the perfect season for colorful scarves, sparkly necklaces, dangly earrings, or your favorite turtleneck. In terms of gift giving, the color of the throat chakra is royal blue. If there is someone in your life who has had difficulty speaking up, expressing themselves, a perfect gift might be a blue scarf or jewelry with blue elements. It doesn’t have to be something only worn around the neck. It could be a blue shirt, blue hat or a blue journal.

In those moments when you feel like you have to hold back, put a smile on your face and allow your whole body to feel it. You have self-care options when it comes to holiday stress.

FCK: Thank you Chakra Girl. As for the next blog, I’m going to take your advice and express myself by discussing something very important like sparkly shoes or pink divinity.