Autumn Equinox Blessings

Today we celebrate the Autumn Equinox when once again it marks the balance of equal day and night time hours on our wheel of the year.  I try to choose activities that are fun, creative and different, as well as inspiring and engaging for my kiddos.  We have been blessed to have a few apple trees on our new rental place, much like we had on our Ranch property the past few years, where we've come to make it a ritual to go out and pick apples each Autumn Equinox.

Here's a picture of Keagan on his very first Autumn apple picking ritual. Those trees were much older and the branches full of apples, which weighed them down each year.  Though like here we had many birds stop by and pick over our apples we still managed to find a few survivors.

 

This year was a little more challenging as the apples were sparse and much higher up but we still managed to get up there and harvest some apples!





 
With a little help from brother Keagan was able to reach some too.

Some were just within his reach!

We also did a miracle walk around the property and found other treasures, among them were feathers and leaves that had just turned and fallen from our trees.




We brought them all inside, the boys got out our art supplies. Then each of us picked an apple, I cut the apples open crosswise to expose their central stars.  We each took out our apples' seeds and set them aside for our Autumn blessings ritual.  We then started our creations!

Keagan chose all the Autumn colors he could find and we created apple and leaf prints on our papers.  Dad worked from home today so as soon as he was able to he join us on our crafting venture.

Here's our finished works of Art.







After cleaning up, with much coaching from mom, though it is getting easier as this is something my little one is finally learning to accept as being part of any and all activities.  But after everything was picked up we went outside, sat on the grass and felt the warmth of the late afternoon sun.  With each seed we held we alternated whispering something we felt most grateful for and making a wish for the upcoming year, then we tossed it to the wind.  

 
My little one was concentrating very heard with each seed he held, that I could not resist taking pictures of him.  It's wonderful finding ways to share with our children and teaching them about life and my spirituality in a fun, wonderful and magickal way.





All in all we had a wonderful time, a simple but blessed Autumn celebration!