Autumn

My favorite time of the year is at hand. How many of you love the chill in the air, the leaves fluttering down from the trees and the jog toward the holidays as much as I do?

The only thing I really don't enjoy about the change of seasons is the fact that I usually catch a cold. In fact, I've been recovering from a cold/flu kind of thing I caught during my weekend in Kentucky. (See my last blog entry for details on that fun event.)

I was recently doing some research into Iroquois mythology and came across the following interesting story (paraphrased from Wiki):

"Sosondowah was a great hunter who was captured by Dawn, a goddess who needed him as a watchman. He fell in love with Gendenwitha, a human woman. He tried to woo her with song. In spring, he sang as a bluebird, in summer as a blackbird and in autumn as a hawk, who then tried to take Gendenwitha with him to the sky. Dawn tied him to her doorpost. She then changed Gendenwitha into the Morning Star, so he could watch her all night but never be with her."

It's kind of beautiful and sad at the same time, but what struck me -- as odd little facts usually do -- is that in Autumn, Sosondowah was a hawk. The fierce hunter, wrapped in the colors of turning leaves and fading crops, the brown feathers, hooked beak and keen eye of the predator. It seems fitting and rather intriguing at the same time.

I wish you all a joyous Autumn and if you should see a hawk in your travels... remember, he might just be Sosondowah, keeping watch.

Bianca
http://www.biancadarc.com/