The first day of autumn and the beginning of spring all rolled into one. When you are a Global Nomad Gypsy Pilgrim, it’s hard to know which hemisphere to honour, which season to mourn or celebrate and where you belong in your life. The digital age is going to flood me with all those images of autumnal leaves, winter boots, the start of new academic choices or even the recurring new intake of freshmen from some of my teachers and lecturer friends. Here in the global south, and especially in Cape Town, I’m looking forward to all those beach shots, bikini bodies and of course we’ve already started with the whales. They’re here and have been for a while ; along with the west coast flowers; and in Pretoria they’ll be waiting for the rain and the electric thunder that infuses it, to put together one of the most dramatic shows on Earth. The year is beginning and ending all at the same time. Some of you will have achieved massive dreams (I know I have), others will be starting out on new ones; and others will still be left with the listless feeling of what am I doing with my life. It’s a question that has plagued me for years and now it seems finally I am arriving. My ticket has been bought and all this personal development has paid off; finally, I’m following my spirit, not my wound. For me, this year has come with a lot of highs and lows and some big realisations. The ones that shatter worlds and help you figure out what my dreams, where is my spirit guiding me. And I write this now as a Scottish woman who really knows that it’s September, that summer ends with a winter wonderworld of hibernation. Rumination and slumber awaits in a world of dreaming. Now more than ever I found the 15-year-old girl in my life who has been waiting for so long to find out what she is going to do with her life, to figure out that she’s actually kind of done it. That you can get paid for lighting incense, washing crystals in the moonlight and pulling tarot cards for nebulous reasons; and in your off time you can sing to the whales, run in flower filled sea meadows, climb mountains and live the dream you dreamed of. It’s all so very fabulous.
Life changes as the seasons change. There is always time to find something you’ve lost, prioritise your dreams, or in the simplest of cases change your mind. Trees shed leaves, and re-grow limbs; and flowers can stay dormant for years and bloom for one day. There is so much we can learn from the ever-changing and adaptable nature of nature and its seasons.
