Northwood News ♦ October 2010

President’s Message

By Carole A. Barth

This will be my last President’s Message.  A new President will be elected at the 13 October meeting.  I’m writing this on the autumnal equinox, when day and night are approximately equal and the sun rises due east and sets due west.  This year, it is also the date of the full moon and Jupiter is the closest it’s been to Earth in more than a decade.

Astronomically, the equinox is a brief moment in time when the center of the sun crosses the celestial equator (an extension of Earth’s equator into space).  Culturally, it’s when summer gives way to fall, signaled by the harvest moon.

So as I make the transition from President to “Immediate Past President,” it’s an opportunity to reflect on transition, balance, and harvest.

Now is the time of letting go; leaves fall, seeds are released, birds leave for warmer climes.  All the green and growing work of the hot sun begins to unravel before our eyes.  The insect choir gives way to honking geese.  The goldfinch casts off his brilliant feathers and dresses in olive drab.  We are heading toward the dark, still time of winter.

In every letting go, however, there is the promise of new life to come.  The fallen leaves make a salamander’s winter home. Eventually the leaves are recycled into good forest soil where a tree seed will sprout.  There is balance in giving and receiving.

We know autumn is the harvest season.  But there is much more than seeds, nuts, and fruits to harvest.  Monarch butterflies harvest nectar to fuel their 2,500 mile flight to Mexico.  They “bulk up,” storing fat to last them through the winter.  However, individual butterflies only make the round-trip once.  It is their children’s grandchildren that return south the following fall.

May we all find a rich harvest this fall, and may we all keep safe until spring comes again.   ■