Reflections and Rituals for the Autumnal Equinox A creative essay by Victoria Houser I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, The days of my life, already lived, And held like a legend, already understood.
-Rainer Maria Rilke, “Love Poems to God”
The autumnal equinox provides a space for
acknowledge the events that have not
us to reflect on the past, meditate in the
been entirely peaceful, and have even, at
present, and imagine for the future. The
times, been incredibly painful.
autumnal equinox is about paying tribute to what has passed in the early parts of the
This year was fragmented by intense
year; it is a time for observing both the joys
oscillations between creativity and
and sorrows of the year. Often, this time of
stillness. Creativity is hard to find in pieces.
moving from light to dark provides spaces
Sinéad Gleeson wrote this about her book
for us to practice gratitude and extend
Constellations: “Some stories [can’t] be
peace over what we’ve experienced during
told in an amorphous chunk of text…
the year. But this has certainly not been a
Sometimes the world steers you towards
completely peaceful year. We continue to
the broken apart, the work that refuses to
live and work in a pandemic, fires ravage
be glued together, that basks in its un-
the West Coast, drought has demolished
ness.” This year was a year of pieces. I
crops in South-Central Texas, and there
have a folder on my laptop titled, simply,
does not seem to be enough time or energy
“Writing.” All kinds of things make their
to face these tragedies and practice habits
way to this folder. Here are some titles of
of gratitude. Time has felt slippery, tossing
pieces that made it to that list:
us back and forth between people and
“Washington 2017,” “August 10,” “Sheets,”
places. When the time comes, we must
and “bone.” I’ve thought a lot about the
rest, listen, and let the heart catch up to all
person who wrote each of those pieces,
the little losses floating around the totality
and the year that she experienced. She
of the body. But it is equally important to
wrote a dissertation during a global
Cultivate SA | Fall 2021 | 35
