Wednesday, 27thAugust 2013 (North Side, Anguilla)—The summer is ending and Christmas will sooncome. It seems like time is flying by so swiftly this year that the calendar months are rapidly vanishing. Only four weeks ago, we were preparing to celebrate Emancipation Day with the beginning of Summer Festival on the 1st of August, which was also my dad’s 88th birthday. I don’t know what happened to the days, but they seem to have disappeared and passed by with a quick glance.
We are now getting ready for a change of seasons with summer ending and fall beginning. Before we know it, winter will soon be upon us. During late August through October, many of the hotels, restaurants and other businesses on Anguilla shut down to prep, repair and rejuvenate for the peak tourist season that begins annually on the 1st of November. Children, youths, young people and teachers start back to school in late August, early September and they have to concentrate their energy on academic studies and teaching.
Yet this is the time of year when many parents are off from work. Adults are temporarily laid off from jobs due to the short-term closings of various businesses island-wide. So this time of year isusually when workers in the tourism industrywant to take holidays, getting away from the normal daily routines in their lives.
For myself, I have taken a month off from my usual creative writing of articles for The Anguillian newspaper. I focussed my attention on celebrating the emancipation of my inner self, the freedom to be who I am and to be whoever I choose to be. And I must say that I’ve had a great time participating in a few of the carnival events and summer activities like International Night held at Lansome Bowl Cultural Centre on Friday, July 26th;liming at a house party with friends on Saturday evening, August 3rd; dancing the night and part of the morning away to Boss and the North Sound Brass at the All Star Sports Bar in George Hill on Sunday night, August 4th; hanging out with more friends at Sandy Ground on August Monday; and viewing the Parade of Troupes en Mas exhibiting their colourful costumeswhilst joyouslygyrating their bodies throughout The Valley streets on August Friday.
I even devoted time everyday during this month’s festivities to continue serious pursuit of my spiritual studies. A girlfriend who is a sadhana (spiritual) partner and I decided to join Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge to create miraculous relationships. The Meditation Challenge was offered free of charge online via the Chopra Meditation Center website https://cho pracentermeditation.com. We began the programme on Monday, August 5th, and daily chatted by telephone reflecting on what came up for each of us during the meditation sessions, and we talked about whatever else was going on in our lives.
It has been an awesome summer time and I feel a bit sad that this warm, hot season will soon be ending. But all good things must come to an end at sometime or another. As we get ready to move from summer to fall, it gives each of us wonderful opportunities to take stock and inventory of our lives, reflecting on where we’ve been and where we are headed or wish to go.
How do we handle the seasonal changes?
Now that autumn is coming, we all need to shift our thinking and determine the next direction that we want to follow in our lives. It’s always an appropriate time to set new intentions for ourselves as the seasons change, especially during Springtime when there is the new growth of plants, vegetation and Mother Nature is in full bloom. Autumn brings another change of seasons with leaves turning from vibrant green to spectacular orange, red and yellow colours before dropping off of the deciduous trees like Popular, Ash, Birch and Oak that you find in the New England states or Pacific Northwest region of the USA.
The fall is a great time to make preparations for winter’s hibernation period when many things lay dormant.During the winter months, there are certain animals in theclimates of thenorthern hemispherethatlay underground or in enclosed spaces to escape the chilly temperatures. For example, bears like to hibernate in caves andbirds fly south for the winter. I know when I’m up north in the cold that sometimes all I want to do is hibernate, sleep in bed, and stay bundled up under blankets to keep warm.
Why don’t we use this season’s turning to review the experiences we’ve had during the past eight months of the year? It’s a time when we can examine what we like and dislike about ourselves, what we want to change in our inner selves,and how we can better handle emotions that rise up inside of us – or how we react to the comments that other people make to/about us.
Looking deeply in the mirror of ourselves will allow us to be the observer of our own behavioural patterns and characteristics. Only through the eyes of self-examination of our individual soul-self can we know what it is that we need to hold onto and what we really need to release and let go of.So during the upcoming slow seasonal months of September and October, I hope we will all take time out to re-evaluate the personswho we are, the individuals who we choose to be, and where we are headed in our lives.
May God continue to bless each one of us; may the Lord bless our beloved island nation of Anguilla; and mayJah’s grace fill ourselves and our lives with an abundance of blessingsduring the autumn, winter, spring, and summer months of the coming year.
Kay M. Ferguson is a Creative Professional Writer/Editor who is passionatelyliving life to the fullest extent possible, as well as creating miraculous relationships in her life. She enjoys writing opinion-editorials to inspire everyone to greatness, to be the divine soul that God created each person to be.
To share your thoughts or comments, you canlink with Kayviamobile 264 476 8735 or US landline 1 206 388 4848. You may also contacther online by sending a message at www.facebook.com/kaymferguson, or emailanguillawriter@gmail.com.
