Пълният препис на Truth Be Told About Going Wild - Ep. 63: "Remembering Our Place in the Seasonal World"

WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:10.619 Welcome to Truth Be Told About Going Wild. I'm your host, 2 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:13.699 Robert Hensley, and this is the podcast inspired by the 3 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:17.280 principles of personal rewilding. Today, I'd like to talk to 4 00:00:17.339 --> 00:00:22.239 you about autumn traditions, remembering our place in a seasonal world. 5 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:26.120 For much of human history, autumn was not simply a 6 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.609 date on the calendar. It was a profound transition in 7 00:00:29.629 --> 00:00:34.979 the living world. The day shortened, temperatures cold, Crops ripened, 8 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:37.700 animals prepared for winter, and people gathered the food and 9 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:42.259 materials upon which their communities would depend. Our ancestors experienced 10 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:45.090 autumn not as a backdrop to human life, but as 11 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:48.890 an active force that shaped it. It is no coincidence, then, 12 00:00:48.950 --> 00:00:56.159 that so many of our historic autumn traditions center on harvest, gratitude, remembrance, preparation, community, 13 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:01.340 and the changing light. The autumnal equinox occurs when day 14 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:05.209 and night are nearly equal. marking a significant turning point 15 00:01:05.349 --> 00:01:10.299 in the seasonal cycle. Across cultures, this period became associated 16 00:01:10.329 --> 00:01:15.040 with harvest festivals and ceremonies of Thanksgiving. In Britain, traditional 17 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.180 harvest festivals brought communities together to celebrate the completion of 18 00:01:18.219 --> 00:01:22.480 the agricultural year. In Japan, the autumn equinox has long 19 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:25.730 been associated with higan, a period in which some Buddhists 20 00:01:25.849 --> 00:01:31.569 honor ancestors. Across East Asia, the mid-autumn festival developed around 21 00:01:31.689 --> 00:01:35.810 the harvest, the moon, family gatherings, food, and gratitude. These 22 00:01:35.849 --> 00:01:38.930 traditions differ greatly in their histories and meanings, but they 23 00:01:39.310 --> 00:01:43.569 do share one important principle. Human beings are participants in 24 00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:49.299 seasonal cycles larger than themselves. Other autumn traditions acknowledged a 25 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.340 deeper transition, The Gaelic festival of Samhain marked the end 26 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:55.599 of the harvest and the beginning of a darker half 27 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:59.439 of the year. It is associated with communal fires and 28 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:03.030 in later traditions with remembrance and the thinning of the 29 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:06.769 boundaries between the living and the spirit world. Even contemporary 30 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:11.889 Thanksgiving retains elements of this older harvest pattern. The 1621 31 00:02:11.889 --> 00:02:16.849 gathering at Plymouth involved a harvest festival, three days, that 32 00:02:16.870 --> 00:02:21.500 were shared by colonists and Wampanoag people although the history 33 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:24.949 surrounding that event is considerably more complicated than the simplified 34 00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:28.090 national story that developed later. How do we bring these 35 00:02:28.129 --> 00:02:31.610 traditions home? We do not need to reproduce historical ceremonies 36 00:02:31.949 --> 00:02:36.129 exactly in order to recover their deeper meaning. Instead, we 37 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:38.860 can ask what those traditions were responding to and how 38 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:42.900 those responses might still be relevant. We can eat seasonally. 39 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.840 Preparing meals from autumn foods and paying attention to where 40 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:50.189 they came from We can preserve food, gather seeds, make soup, 41 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:53.469 bake bread, and share the harvest of a garden. We 42 00:02:53.490 --> 00:02:57.150 can spend time outdoors noticing the changing leaves, the migration 43 00:02:57.169 --> 00:03:01.389 of the birds, cooler temperatures, earlier sunsets, and the preparations 44 00:03:01.430 --> 00:03:05.629 that other species are making for winter. We can also 45 00:03:05.689 --> 00:03:10.349 create contemporary rituals of gratitude and remembrance. An autumn gathering 46 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:13.469 might include a shared meal, a walk through a local landscape, 47 00:03:13.569 --> 00:03:17.289 and telling family stories. or just a moment of appreciation 48 00:03:17.349 --> 00:03:20.909 for the people, plants, animals, soil, water, and labor that 49 00:03:20.949 --> 00:03:26.560 made the meal possible. Perhaps the most important thing is 50 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:30.319 that autumn invites us to practice letting go. Trees do 51 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:33.199 not cling onto their leaves just because they became familiar. 52 00:03:34.379 --> 00:03:38.479 The natural world demonstrates that change, decline, dormancy, and renewal 53 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.699 are not failures but necessary parts of a larger cycle. 54 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:46.110 This is where historic autumn traditions can be meaningful Their 55 00:03:46.150 --> 00:03:49.669 value is not merely in preserving older customs, it is 56 00:03:49.729 --> 00:03:55.280 in recovering an older way of paying attention, to celebrate awareness. 57 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.900 We can celebrate the harvest without pretending that we live 58 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:01.879 in an agrarian village. We can gather around a fire 59 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:05.240 without imagining ourselves to be ancient Celts. We can honor 60 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:09.840 our ancestors without romanticizing the past. We mark the equinox 61 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:13.159 simply by going outside and noticing that the world has changed. 62 00:04:14.169 --> 00:04:18.290 The essential practice is relationship. Autumn reminds us that we 63 00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:21.279 are not separate from the seasons. We are biological beings 64 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:25.519 living within cycles of light and darkness, abundance and scarcity, 65 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:30.740 growth and decay. Our ancestors developed traditions that helped them 66 00:04:30.779 --> 00:04:34.220 remember this reality, and we can do the same. By 67 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:40.329 consciously observing autumn through food, gathering, gratitude, storytelling, stewardship, remembrance, 68 00:04:40.430 --> 00:04:44.410 and time outdoors, We turn seasonal change from something that 69 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:47.649 merely happens around us into something that we participate in. 70 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:51.819 In doing so, an old tradition becomes a contemporary practice. 71 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.420 Remembering that we belong to the living world and allowing 72 00:04:56.459 --> 00:04:59.839 the rhythms of the world to shape how we live. 73 00:04:59.860 --> 00:05:03.399 I want to thank you so much for listening today. Again, 74 00:05:03.459 --> 00:05:05.740 this is an episode of Truth Be Told about going 75 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:09.120 wild with me, your host, Robert Hensley. Remember that there 76 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:11.860 are two opportunities each week for new content from the 77 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:15.399 Truth Be Told family of podcasts on the Club Paranormal 78 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:18.740 channel on YouTube. That's Tony Sweet on Fridays with the 79 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.720 original Truth Be Told. And of course, Truth Be Told 80 00:05:21.740 --> 00:05:24.500 about going wild on Mondays. Both of those shows go 81 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.920 live at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 Eastern on their respective days. 82 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:32.209 If you have questions, comments, concerns, or would like to 83 00:05:32.259 --> 00:05:36.329 know more about what I'm working on, please visit my website. 84 00:05:36.649 --> 00:05:45.339 You can find me at www.rhnaturereconnect.com. Again, that's www.rhnaturereconnect. I 85 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:47.420 would love to hear from you. Happy to talk to 86 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:50.699 anyone about personal rewilding and what it means to rekindle 87 00:05:50.779 --> 00:05:54.509 our relationship with the natural world. And you can also 88 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:58.430 find me on Patreon. You can subscribe to my personal 89 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:02.860 Rewilding with Robert Hensley community there. It's free. If you'd 90 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:07.300 like more exclusive content each month, you can also become 91 00:06:07.399 --> 00:06:13.110 an exclusive Going Wild member for $ 15 a month. Thanks again, 92 00:06:13.389 --> 00:06:14.569 and until next time.