“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu
August has arrived. The summer solstice is behind us and we move ever closer towards Autumn. Daylight hours begin to wane and nature reaches a point of maturity with some flowers, grasses and vegetables beginning to wither. Lammas day on the 1st August has just passed, falling between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Lammas or ‘loaf mass’ is traditionally when people celebrate the first wheat harvest in the UK. Grains that are harvested at this time include wheat, barley, oats, rye as well as plants such as mint, sunflowers and calendula. It dates back to Anglo Saxon times, when the festival was referred to as the ‘feast of first fruits’.
It’s timely then that as the fields and trees bearing fruit are in harvest, we have reached the stage in the A Seasonal Year course in which we look at what it means to flourish and nurture in our business and in life.
I embarked on the A Seasonal Year course by The Wild Academy in November last year, a course which helps small business owners work in alignment with the seasons. The Wild Academy founders Eleanor Cheetham and Maddy Lawson are passionate about helping people get back to nature and showing them how to rewild, realign and reconnect. They do this through a programme of courses and a series of gatherings that connect like-minded folk.
From November to January, in the depths of winter when nature slowed, we began the course by turning inwards and reflecting on our businesses and the year just gone. We then considered how to step into renewal for the year ahead. From February to April as spring approached we began to consider how we could emerge and grow in our work and the projects we’d highlighted as a priority. And here we are now, at the beginning of August having just spent some time working on the next stage of the course looking at how we can flourish in business, whilst nurturing ourselves along the way…a theme that is so apt for me right now.
I’ve really enjoyed these past two modules, and as always with this course, I’ve found the topics covered resonating with me at a deep level. Maddy and Eleanor, business owners themselves, really understand the challenges that self-employment can bring. I often read the content of the course whilst nodding my head and feeling like I’m not the only one that experiences some of the issues covered. It’s a gentle approach, that is heart and nature led which really speaks to me. Read more here..