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September of Our Years
Written By: William McReynolds - Highlands Plateau Audubon Society | Issue: September - 2022
This month brings its own nostalgic realizations about time
The arrival of the fall month of September causes us topause and notice the passage of time. We feel the changeof season this month, the eternal march of time. We arein the September of our calendar year. We also think about,perhaps, being in the September of our lives.It’s a good month to think about time. Time might not exist, youknow, outside human experience. In that respect, the experienceof time might be like the experience of beauty: something thatexists not in the objective world but wholly in human experi-ence. This is depth psychology.Our human experience of linear time spans the past, presentand future. We also experience the circularly of time in thecycle of the four seasons and in ideas of reincarnation. TheMaya carved round stone calendars representing hundreds ofthousands of circular years in time.If you combine linear with circular, you get a three-dimensionalspiral. The three-dimensional spiral is an icon that appears onthe edge of theoretical physics and metaphysics, a paradigm ofchange. We know little about time, more about gravity.The best expression of circular time I have ever seen comes inthe form of a poem, the lyrics of a song in The Lion King.Circle of LifeFrom the day we arrive on the planetAnd blinking, step into the sunThere’s more to be seen than can ever be seenMore to do than can ever be doneSome say eat or be eatenSome say live and let liveBut all are agreed as they join the stampedeYou should never take more than you giveIn the circle of life, it’s the wheel of fortuneIt’s the leap of faith, it’s the band of hopeTill we find our place on the path unwinding n the circle, the circle of lifeSome of us fall by the waysideAnd some of us soar to the starsAnd some of us sail through our troublesAnd some have to live with the scarsThere’s far too much to take in hereMore to find than can ever be foundBut the sun rolling high through the sapphire skyKeeps great and small on the endless roundIn the circle, the circle of lifeThis is our time. All of us are in the September of thisyear; Many of us are in the September of our years, orNovember, in the Circle of Time. Take heart: Beautyabounds and is ours for the taking. Behold the gifts ofSeptember, in the circle of time.
by William McReynolds
