Change of Seasons

This morning I awoke in the darkness to see the brilliant crescent moon rising over a glassy Hussey Sound. I stood in that space between asleep and awake, mindful of the tenuous dream state of reality—conscious, and yet not quite awake. Caught between wanting to take it all in and not wanting to wake myself fully.

It seems an apt metaphor for this moment. I am fully drinking in the beauty of the end of summer, and yet somehow not quite present to the reality of autumn descending. The loons have returned. The birch trees are yellowing and beginning to shed their leaves. The mornings are crisp, the daylight shrinking. My impulse is to somehow expand this precious time of in-between.

The glory of Maine in late August and early September is unmatched in my life. Yesterday, I walked the length of Scarborough Beach on a receding tide, as if I needed a reminder to fortify my belief in the magnificence of Maine. Sharing an afternoon with my beloved aunt and one of my beloved daughters was among the greatest gifts in my life. I am so moved by their presence, their grace, and their grit—their willingness to share life as it comes, to honor one another, and to delight in our own becoming.

As the calendar has turned to September, so has the weather, almost as if on cue. The winds turn more northerly, bringing a seasonal chill to the air. The days are noticeably shorter, and yet the long, late-afternoon light feels like a kind of resistance.

It has been a month of harvesting and processing fruits and vegetables. The lack of rain continues to be concerning, and every hope of rain that passes us by becomes another lesson in acceptance. And so, the chore of watering continues. Maine used to be a rainy place.

September is a time of transition.

For us here, it means holding the last show of the season at the Fifth Maine Museum, and then finding our way back, in October, to the heart of our year-round community—the New Brackett Church.

We have a few really wonderful shows on the horizon for the end of summer into the fall. First up on Friday September 18, we have a local powerhouse trio with Caitlin Finlay, Will Woodson and Neil Pearlman. Together they will bring the life the dance band music of the 1920’s in the soundscape of Irish American traditions of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. This show will conjure up the sounds of the dance halls and vaudeville theaters and house parties central to Irish-American diaspora in the first half of the 20th century.