Now I will do nothing but listen. . . .
I hear all sounds running together,
combined, fused or following,
sounds of the city and sounds out of the city,
sounds of the day and night. . .
Walt Whitman

Perhaps because the places I've lived (near the Maine coast and in the high desert at the southern tip of the Rockies) are places where the seasons are somewhat moderated, I've often felt that the traditional "first day" of each season is more rightfully the heart of that season. For example, by late June here in northern New Mexico the unrelenting beating of the sun is at its most intense, as we await the summer clouds and rain, and by late March warm days and spring winds have become common.

To my body, it feels as if the cross-quarter days—halfway between the Solstices and Equinoxes now enshrined as "first days" of each new season—are when the earth's rhythms really begin to change. During February, while winter lingers, we also feel the first stirrings of spring and can usually begin to work the soil. Similarly, early May brings the emergence of consistently warm days, and early November surely ushers in deep frosts and the likelihood of snow. The pulse of the year's cycles beats in steady rhythm, with these ancient cross-quarter days tickling our sense of the seasonal turning. Two of them have retained a foothold in modern culture, with "fun" holidays still associated with them: May Day and Halloween. The other two have begun to slip from our awareness, yet remain resonant in the natural world around us.

I'm pleased to anchor these quarterly communications between the Institute and its members to these times worthy of our awareness, and to begin the cycle here on St. Brigid's Day, as spring begins to stir awake underfoot.

Jim Cummings
AEI Founder

Contact:
45 Cougar Canyon
Santa Fe, NM 87508
ph 505-466-1879 fax 505-466-4930