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The mornings are darker now. The verdant green of spring has given way to to a yellower shade, as if the world has been filtered through a seventies lens. The lambs in the fields are gone, replaced with a chunkier version that gambols less, and the horses and cattle seem to move more slowly as if tired by the summers heat. Now there is a mist along the valley’s ridges instead of the crisper lines that were the mark of younger days. And as the days pass the fruits on the trees grow ripe.

This is how it always is, as the year turns on its heels and begins its decline. A journey of decay until finally in the depths of the darkness, when it seems that the flame must finally flicker out, new kindling is found and the fire increases; the cycle begins again.

In the I Ching, or Book of Changes, they speak of sǔn and yì, increase and decrease as metaphors for this never ending cycle. As children we experience these changes either in an instant or very slowly, only as adults coming to appreciate the slower regular rhythms of life. And so as the year begins to fall away, I prepare for the new challenges and opportunities  that are just beginning to spark and glow in the depths of the coming days.