Sara from Seasonal Promise sends a tale of movement and connection, with pictures from Photo Point…

The Wheel keeps spinning and the Seasons are turning.

The bubbly and carefree Summer is fading away, and the days are growing shorter and darker. As the leaves let go of their hopeful green to give way to a nostalgic gold, so do we transition with them and prepare ourselves to welcome the quiet Winter.

Photo by Mark Taylor

Preparing for Samhuinn is much more than rehearsing steps, and listening to the beat that marks the rhythm of your dance. It is about creating a space to – intentionally or not – explore sides of yourself that you might’ve not even known you had or what to call them. Sometimes, preparing Samhuinn is opening up the door of your world to a group of, at once, strangers and friends.

It is about creating a shared trust, and being able to stand in a circle and let people look into and through your eyes. Letting them see what you ache for – even if it is just a glimpse.

Before you know it, more than learning how to move, you are learning how to move together: if you are falling, I will counterbalance you. If you want to look up and dream of the sky, I will hold your back. If you forgot how to stand on your feet, I will carry you until you remember how to dance again.

I listen to your movement, I reply with my steps.

Photo by Heidi Korkala

Photo by Mark Taylor

Photo by Heidi Korkala

And we keep on dancing. Together. We shed our old, dead leaves, and face our bare branches, knowing that – as long as we remember to nurture the seed within – Spring will bring us new sprouts and new Life.

And we keep on dancing.