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Welcome to Truth Be Told About Going Wild. I'm your host,
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Robert Hensley, and this is the podcast inspired by the
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principles of personal rewilding. Today, I'd like to talk to
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you about autumn traditions, remembering our place in a seasonal world.
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For much of human history, autumn was not simply a
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date on the calendar. It was a profound transition in
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the living world. The day shortened, temperatures cold, Crops ripened,
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animals prepared for winter, and people gathered the food and
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materials upon which their communities would depend. Our ancestors experienced
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autumn not as a backdrop to human life, but as
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an active force that shaped it. It is no coincidence, then,
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that so many of our historic autumn traditions center on harvest, gratitude, remembrance, preparation, community,
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and the changing light. The autumnal equinox occurs when day
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and night are nearly equal. marking a significant turning point
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in the seasonal cycle. Across cultures, this period became associated
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with harvest festivals and ceremonies of Thanksgiving. In Britain, traditional
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harvest festivals brought communities together to celebrate the completion of
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the agricultural year. In Japan, the autumn equinox has long
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been associated with higan, a period in which some Buddhists
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honor ancestors. Across East Asia, the mid-autumn festival developed around
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the harvest, the moon, family gatherings, food, and gratitude. These
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traditions differ greatly in their histories and meanings, but they
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do share one important principle. Human beings are participants in
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seasonal cycles larger than themselves. Other autumn traditions acknowledged a
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deeper transition, The Gaelic festival of Samhain marked the end
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of the harvest and the beginning of a darker half
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of the year. It is associated with communal fires and
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in later traditions with remembrance and the thinning of the
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boundaries between the living and the spirit world. Even contemporary
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Thanksgiving retains elements of this older harvest pattern. The 1621
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gathering at Plymouth involved a harvest festival, three days, that
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were shared by colonists and Wampanoag people although the history
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surrounding that event is considerably more complicated than the simplified
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national story that developed later. How do we bring these
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traditions home? We do not need to reproduce historical ceremonies
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exactly in order to recover their deeper meaning. Instead, we
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can ask what those traditions were responding to and how
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those responses might still be relevant. We can eat seasonally.
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Preparing meals from autumn foods and paying attention to where
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they came from We can preserve food, gather seeds, make soup,
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bake bread, and share the harvest of a garden. We
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can spend time outdoors noticing the changing leaves, the migration
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of the birds, cooler temperatures, earlier sunsets, and the preparations
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that other species are making for winter. We can also
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create contemporary rituals of gratitude and remembrance. An autumn gathering
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might include a shared meal, a walk through a local landscape,
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and telling family stories. or just a moment of appreciation
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for the people, plants, animals, soil, water, and labor that
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made the meal possible. Perhaps the most important thing is
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that autumn invites us to practice letting go. Trees do
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not cling onto their leaves just because they became familiar.
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The natural world demonstrates that change, decline, dormancy, and renewal
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are not failures but necessary parts of a larger cycle.
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This is where historic autumn traditions can be meaningful Their
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value is not merely in preserving older customs, it is
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in recovering an older way of paying attention, to celebrate awareness.
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We can celebrate the harvest without pretending that we live
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in an agrarian village. We can gather around a fire
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without imagining ourselves to be ancient Celts. We can honor
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our ancestors without romanticizing the past. We mark the equinox
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simply by going outside and noticing that the world has changed.
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The essential practice is relationship. Autumn reminds us that we
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are not separate from the seasons. We are biological beings
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living within cycles of light and darkness, abundance and scarcity,
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growth and decay. Our ancestors developed traditions that helped them
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remember this reality, and we can do the same. By
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consciously observing autumn through food, gathering, gratitude, storytelling, stewardship, remembrance,
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and time outdoors, We turn seasonal change from something that
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merely happens around us into something that we participate in.
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In doing so, an old tradition becomes a contemporary practice.
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Remembering that we belong to the living world and allowing
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the rhythms of the world to shape how we live.
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I want to thank you so much for listening today. Again,
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this is an episode of Truth Be Told about going
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wild with me, your host, Robert Hensley. Remember that there
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are two opportunities each week for new content from the
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Truth Be Told family of podcasts on the Club Paranormal
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channel on YouTube. That's Tony Sweet on Fridays with the
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original Truth Be Told. And of course, Truth Be Told
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about going wild on Mondays. Both of those shows go
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live at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 Eastern on their respective days.
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If you have questions, comments, concerns, or would like to
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know more about what I'm working on, please visit my website.
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You can find me at www.rhnaturereconnect.com. Again, that's www.rhnaturereconnect. I
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would love to hear from you. Happy to talk to
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anyone about personal rewilding and what it means to rekindle
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our relationship with the natural world. And you can also
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find me on Patreon. You can subscribe to my personal
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Rewilding with Robert Hensley community there. It's free. If you'd
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like more exclusive content each month, you can also become
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an exclusive Going Wild member for $ 15 a month. Thanks again,
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and until next time.