it's august and there are cracks everywhere...
August definitively settles a few things about life that we sometimes forget and mostly prefer to ignore.
Summer is short.
August represents its last phase of shorter, sun-filled days heavy with heat as crickets sing us into warm evenings, lengthened simply for our enjoyment.
We sometimes forget that the secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. We tend not to notice the slow fade of time’s passage from one phase to another until the shift hits all at once.
It’s something our ancestors created rituals and wisdoms for and passed down to us—how to live with life’s unfathomable and unexpected turns.
They were attentive to the immediate, physical realities of existence—to nature, seasons and their bodies, which brings me to what we prefer to forget.
Leonard Cohen wrote, that “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
Perhaps we forget because forgetting feels like protection against the inevitable. But August reminds us that everything has its peak moment before naturally giving way to something else.
Attentive, daily acts of care can create a support system that keeps us connected to ourselves so we navigate life’s “cracks” with grace and wisdom.
Cracks of betrayal, loss, grief, tragedy, and trauma befall us, crashing through our defenses, dislocating both heart and mind.
We don’t get through them. We survive them by carrying them for the rest of our days. And our bodies carry them too.
Skin, a highly intelligent receptor, reads our environment inside and out to deliver intelligence and unmeasurable insight if we’re available.
It pays to care and be observant to skin, the ultimate first responder to changes within and without where cracks are made.
If only it could inoculate us against all misfortune…
When we moisturize our bodies, we activate a deep somatic ritual that heals cracks and soothes trauma to our nervous system at our deepest brain and heart connection.
Yes, there are cracks in life but there is also freedom to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances.
Here’s to choosing our body’s oldest connections and dwelling in life’s beautiful light.
