Butterfly Days

Some people call these the dog days of summer. To me, they’re the butterfly days. Glimpsing a fancy winged being alighting on an echinacea bloom, then floating over to the butterfly milkweed, I feel my heart flutter. Seeing a monarch drift by on a late summer breeze opens up my breath. These are moments when it is easy for me to be mindful. And I appreciate that! There have been too many times that it’s taken everything in me to just stay with one breath during unpleasant events—a migraine headache, an anxious hour spent in a surgical waiting room, a record-breaking high dewpoint day.

I’m ready for a little lightness! And lots of these beauty moments.

Luckily, for me, this is my very favorite time of year. I know it’s unpopular, because here in the upper midwest what comes after late summer and then fall can be grueling (I won’t say the “w” word—not yet anyway, because it freaks people out). But, this transition where the nights start to cool down, the cicadas lull me with their whirring chants into actually sitting down in an Adirondack chair and just listening, just being, is so welcome to me. I stay so active all summer, which is fun, but I begin to miss my Do Nothing practice.

And fall follows, which is a time—whether I actually go back to school or not—has me sharpening pencils and getting busy with productivity. Harvest time, oh yeah!

But, right now, there’s a little pause. Precious time that I don’t want to waste—where clear, warm days slide into perfect cool nights. Where basil and kale are there for the pickin’. So much prana—life energy—exudes from the environment! I feel for those who dwell on what’s to come and aren’t able to appreciate the NOW of late summer and early fall.

The Butterfly upon the Sky,
That doesn’t know its Name
And hasn’t any tax to pay
And hasn’t any Home
Is just as high as you and I,
And higher, I believe,
So soar away and never sigh
And that’s the way to grieve –

Emily Dickinson

May your butterfly days be happy, healthy, light and free!

Don’t be left out in the cold. If you haven’t gotten your yoga classes lined up for fall now’s the time. Check Tree of Life Yoga’s fall schedule out here.

Tagged as: Be-ing, Do Nothing practice, light