The sunflowers’ dark faces, shining with gold
still greet me on my walks
Persevering and bright, through unforgiving sun and rain
Loving every minute of their joyful lives
holding court over cottontails and tiny birds
perched in their branches.
The air turns cool, and now, dead heads
outnumber the blossoms
feeding the hungry birds,
it’s what they have to offer now,
during the end days, going into Fall,
from the fullness of summer.
As the days grow shorter and breezes sharpen,
the energy of so much change lingers on my tongue,
resting a moment at the in-between
not having accomplished all I set out to do this summer.
My focus drops in to match my energy
that has turned, as the cycle of nature turns,
to pull in, retract, wanting to settle and nurture.
In my life I wanted a great many things-
fields of sunflowers
but the lines of cheer along my path,
are truly enough.
In my summer of life I wished for bounty
but I am grateful to have bare earth under my feet
instead of concrete,
potentials waiting to be coaxed from the soil,
accepting them whether they be dreams or sprouts.
In my summer I thought my arms would reach from
one horizon to the other
but I am happy now, to sit and sip my morning tea
gazing at the sky stretching before me,
in all directions,
singing its beauty to my soul.
In the summer of my life I thought for sure
I would have gotten somewhere
and where I got was a change of locale
from looming redwoods to the unfastened high desert
using the last rays of summer
to carry through such a tremendous passage.
I don’t fool myself on the time I have left,
I’ve passed that mid-point,
and my life turns to Autumn.
My favorite time of year.
What success looks like in Autumn
Is not the brilliant sunflowers and colors of summer
holding domain
It’s not the high energy of the long days
and life giving birth to more life.
It’s not the sweet warm rain refreshing us
and making the garden grow.
It’s not the never ending ease of
limitless time,
Dancing into the night with no care for tomorrows,
which stretch into forever.
It’s not something for later, it is only now
each moment to savor, more sumptuous than the last
Priorities transform, as the wisdom shows
we don’t have time for everything.
It’s the seriousness of knowing
that Winter will come, not too long off,
and what we have left to do,
with the transitioning days, now is the time.
Tomorrow comes today, faster now than ever.
Now is Autumn, the time of giving
all that has grown in the first half of life,
the Spring and the Summer,
that if I sank my roots deep and fed myself well,
then the Autumn of my life is the bounty,
the richness,
and the harvest that can be shared.
-Mardi Storm
