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Poor Will's Almanack: Sept. 3 - 9

Ohio nature landscape skyscape photography in late summer by Jim Crotty
Jim Crotty
/
Flickr Creative Commons
Ohio nature landscape skyscape photography in late summer by Jim Crotty

In most of my almanacs, I have focused on certain plants or flowers or trees. I have been paying attention to micro seasons, like the season of wingstem in the woods or stonecrop in the garden, or the time the robins start to sing in the spring.

But most micro seasons for many people relate to sports or school or children or family or illness or death.

And with all those concerns, the seasons of nature often disappear or face into the background. Writing this almanac and thinking about the different phases of natural time, has, at the very least, offered a balance and an honor for all the social aspects of my life.

I grew up in religious family with rituals I have either left behind or modified. But I have also found that closely watching the longer and shorter seasons of the year can compensate for the weakening of the spiritual, and offer support and stability for my earth for the divine.

I feel something must be true and solid, and that I can find it when I look closely at what happens in the world as it spins across.

Bill Felker has been writing nature columns and almanacs for regional and national publications since 1984. His Poor Will’s Almanack has appeared as an annual publication since 2003. His organization of weather patterns and phenology (what happens when in nature) offers a unique structure for understanding the repeating rhythms of the year.