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I open the front door

to greet the garden,

the cool air, the soft sunlight,

as summer begins to slide into fall.

A few lavender stems are still blooming,

providing nectar for bees and butterflies.

The dry soil will need water this morning.

Before I go out, I check my email

and read your latest post, Kaitlin.

Thank you for your words of beauty and wisdom.

Thank you for helping me try to find the poetry, joy and tenderness in this moment.

This started out as an attempt at a poem but ended as a note of gratitude.

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The garden is heavy

with fullness and summer,

Sweet susans drooping

into the coreopsis, the bluestem,

the strawberries

bent under the weight of

abundance, the whole dance of it

full and pressing, pressing like

the skin of water, holding shape,

barely, readying to spill back

into the earth, but aching to live into

every last sunset, until bedtime.

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As some leaves turn and begin to fall

and others hold on, many weeks to go yet

they whisper to me

There is no one deadline

or rigid threshold

There is no expiry date

or calendar countdown

You can rest, you can wait, you can act

in your own time

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This is so lovely!

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OH YAY! October 1 is my birthday! What a lovely day for a giveaway. Thank you for creating this space your words are so inspiring.

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Thank you so much for being here friend!

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Glad for the space!

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I'm new here, having found you through the web of Substack interconnections via Liminal Walker Musings, via the Creekmasons Collective.

I am a seed grower and the creator of the Winnow Wizard seed cleaner, I am working to restore local food systems in western Oregon, and I am a writer on themes of ecological spirituality and dissolving the illusion of separation.

My summer-turning-to-autumn poem is a bit long to paste in here so I'll link to it instead: https://dendroica.substack.com/p/turning

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September

sweltering sauna

summer hangs relentlessly

no autumn chill here

paradise has its trade-offs

can’t wait to chill in winter 😁

Kaitlin- I love words, too, and I know

when they feel like home.

Thanks for sharing yours.

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