As I sit here writing this, it is going to be nearly 90º today, so it’s hard to get myself into the mindset of the “ber” months. But I have one of my test candles from our Autumn Collection burning and my house smells like warm kitchen spices, rich earth, and crisp apples, so that is helping get me in the Fall mood.

I looked back at my blog posts and I think most of my writing happens in the fall, or at least that is what I like to write about or it’s when I’m the most introspective. Maybe it’s because as a Capricorn I’m a natural planner and Virgo season has that nesting effect and I go into planning, organizing and crafting mode. Fall is also the beginning of the “busy” season in retail and I find that I need to be really well organized to keep up with product drops, classes and Downtown Kennewick events. It’s also when I take a look at the sales for the year so far and begin looking at where I can make changes to our offerings and tweak things at the shop to help the rest of the year go smoothly.

That introspection - whether it’s examining my personal life through my more prolific writing, or at the shop through my taking inventory and assessing sales reports - helps me create a sense of balance that sometimes gets lost during the summer and the mad dashes that are the end and beginning of the school year. Working towards regaining equilibrium and balance during the Equinox time of the year feels right and necessary for making it through the rest of the season without burning out and abandoning my family to the shop. This season is about creating boundaries for myself and finding balance between my work, my craft and my home. It is so easy for me to let these things to overlap and become blurred but I think that this whole year has been trying to teach me to come back to myself and my center when I need to regain my balance.

Mabon is on the 22nd this year and it is the Fall Equinox. It’s that physically observable reminder that the darkness is necessary for the light and that the northern hemisphere is going to shortly enter the darker months where we need to live off of the preparations we’ve made from the abundance of the summer. The element of gratitude is inextricably linked with the abundance of the season. Mabon is the second of 3 harvest celebrations and it serves to remind us that we cannot have abundance and a successful harvest without also offering up our gratitude for that abundance. I’ll be honest, this year at the shop has been hard. We have not had the sales I anticipated and it has meant that things have been really tight both at home and at the shop, yet I find myself being able to lean into gratitude for my faithful, regular customers who come in, always with a smile, a hug and a show of support - even if they can’t purchase something right then. This support means more to me than I have the words to properly quantify and I am grateful to you from the bottom of my soul. I am grateful to my husband for always making sure the household chores are taken care of when I have long days and evening classes at the shop. I’m grateful for my friends and family who are the most amazing hype-girls anyone could ever have. I’m grateful for my employees who keep the shop running so I can replenish our stock of handcrafted items or just be able to take a day off to spend with my family. I’m grateful for my Downtown neighbor business owners who are always popping in to check on one another and offer words of encouragement. Ok, that wound up sounding more like an Oscar’s acceptance speech than I intended, but you get the idea.

I have some classes and workshops that I’ll be teaching at the shop this month and as I was researching the focus of those classes, the upcoming seasonal celebrations kept poking at my brain, saying “you need to focus on us.” So, my upcoming Candle Crafting Class will, of course, be utilizing fall scents, my Magical Herbs workshop will focus on 5 seasonal herbs that are best suited to Mabon and Samhain, and my Sacred Spaces workshop will focus on making the most of your Autumn/Samhain altar and rituals. I want to continue the theme of gratitude and abundance and preparation in my classes and events this month, and I challenge you to cultivate the same mindset as you navigate this month and celebrate the equinox.

September: Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude