In Chinese Medicine the harvest season of late summer corresponds to the Earth element. The Earth element regulates the digestive system and all that deeply nourishes and sustains us. The Earth element is all about balance, boundaries and maintaining inner and outer integrity as a cornerstone to Health.

I often sense the coming of Autumn long before it officially arrives; the breeze cools with a kind of inward pull. The hot afternoon sun softens and light begins to slant differently, casting longer shadows across the yard. The once-bold greens of summer soften, as the first leaves turn to golden, almost imperceptibly. Grasses set their seeds. The garden slows.