August Whispers

The Sacred Transition from Summer to Autumn

You know that strange cold that arrives uninvited in late July or early August? The one that settles into your chest like an old friend who's overstayed a welcome? Scratchy throat, persistent cough, that bone-deep fatigue that no amount of sleep seems to touch?

We call it a "summer cold," but the Earth has other names for it.

If we look beyond the rigid lines of our Gregorian calendar—beyond the human impulse to organize Nature into neat boxes—we discover something profound. The energetic calendar rooted in ancient Taoist wisdom reveals that summer's exuberant yang energy actually completes its cycle around July 28th. By mid-August, we are fully in Autumn.

This liminal time during the first two weeks of August, a time between seasons, is sacred territory. It's one of the four great transitions of the year, when the Earth herself shifts gears, and we—being nature in human form—feel that shift in our bones, our breath, our very cells.  We are shifting too and are invited to participate consciously.

The Wisdom of Your Body's Rhythm

Years ago, when I was newer to this dance with Chinese medicine, I noticed something that both puzzled and fascinated me: like clockwork, every mid-August brought with it a sinus infection. For five consecutive years, my body would falter as I struggled to make the transition fully into Autumn.

As I began studying the energetic calendar, it was as if someone had handed me the missing piece of a puzzle I didn't even know I was solving. Getting sick was a sign that I was not gracefully transitioning from Summer's expansive fire into Autumn's introspective metal. My body was speaking the language of the seasons, and I hadn't yet learned to listen.

Honestly? I still find this particular transition challenging. There's something about Autumn—the inevitable shortening of days, the gradual dimming of light—that my soul seems to resist. But this is the gift of Chinese medicine. It teaches us to recognize our personal rhythms, to understand which seasons call us home and which ones ask us to grow, and to give us guidance on how to better care for ourselves in the tricky spaces.

We each have seasons that we love and feel most alive in, and seasons that are more challenging to be our most noble selves in. Both are medicine.

When the Lungs Call for Attention

In the wisdom of Chinese Medicine, Autumn belongs to the Lung organ system. The Lungs govern not just our breath, but our skin and our immune system—that boundary between inner and outer worlds.

The Lungs are considered the most delicate of all the organ systems, easily disturbed by changes in climate and emotion alike. They are like sensitive instruments that register every shift in the atmospheric pressure of our lives.

So why might your immune system falter right now, even when the thermometer still reads Summer temperatures?

The Great Drying

Autumn is the season of dryness, and the Lungs wilt from this like flowers drying in a vase. Even if the air still holds Summer's humidity, look around. The plants are completing their life cycles, setting seed, drying up, and returning to earth. This is the declining stage of the great wheel, and declining means drying.

If you are over 50 (and in the Autumn of your own life), you've likely noticed this dryness creeping into your skin, your joints, your spirit. When we add the natural drying time of year, the effect compounds. Because you are Nature wearing human form, when Nature dries, you become drier.

The Lungs depend on moist yin fluids to remain supple and strong. Without this essential moisture, they become vulnerable to every irritant, allergen, and pathogen that crosses their threshold. You might notice dry skin, throat or sinuses that feel like you can’t drink enough water to hydrate.  These are all ways to see into your Lungs.

The Sacred Weight of Grief

Autumn's emotion is grief—not the sharp, cutting grief of sudden loss, but the deeper, more subtle grief of letting go. Grief is the emotional experience of loss and letting go and that is that is happening in Nature in Autumn. This is the great exhale of the year, the falling leaves, the golden light that grows shorter each day. It’s the abundance and color of Summer composting back into earth.

In our current world, where collective grief already fills the airwaves in a way we can't quite escape, Autumn amplifies what we're all carrying. If you've experienced personal loss, this is the season when that tender place needs extra tending as your grief starts to hum along with Nature’s seasonal tune of grief.  Each year at this time, we have the opportunity for another pass at healing our broken hearts when things you haven’t remembered in a while resurface. We are invited to remember and reconfirm the love we carry in our hearts for the people and life stages that have passed, for grief is inevitable when you love fully.

This grief—both personal and collective—weakens the Lung energy and, by extension, compromises our immune system. We become more porous, more vulnerable to whatever is in our environment, be it physical or emotional.

The Invitation of This Transition

Having awareness that we are moving through a sacred transition time can transform how we care for ourselves. This is not about forcing your way through or pushing past your body's wisdom. This is about tuning into your deeper needs—for rest, for gentleness, for the kind of self-compassion that honors both your strength and your tender places. 

That "summer cold" might actually be an early Autumn messenger, calling you to slow down, to listen more carefully to your body's whispers before they become shouts. It's an invitation to begin the inward turn that Autumn requires of us all.

If your chest feels tight, your heart heavy with unnamed melancholy, know that you are not broken. You are having a completely natural, resonant response to the season's energetic shift. You are not alone in this.

The Sacred Work of Transition

Whether you call it a Summer cold or an Autumn awakening, this is fundamentally about transition—and transitions are some of the most sacred and challenging work we do as human beings. They ask us to let go of what has been, just as the trees prepare to release their leaves. They invite us to get comfortable with the unknown territory ahead, and to trust and follow Nature’s lead: to gather the seeds, that which is most precious, and to know that it is compost that gives rise to new life in the spring.

Here are some ways to support your Lungs and nourish your Yin through this seasonal transition:

Moistening Fruits (Nature's medicine for dryness): Pears or pears steamed with honey become liquid comfort for irritated lungs. Asian pears, loquats, watermelon, and perfectly ripe persimmons all carry the moisture your body craves.

Gentle, Moisture-Rich Vegetables: Spinach, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini—foods that still hold Summer's juiciness. White mushrooms and seaweed bring deep nourishment from earth and sea.

Soothing Grains: White rice, millet, and barley offer gentle, grounding energy that doesn't tax your digestive fire.

Yin-Rich Nuts and Seeds: Pine nuts, walnuts, and black sesame seeds provide the deep, nourishing fats that keep your tissues supple.

And if you feel called to explore herbal support, there are beautiful allies like lily bulb, American ginseng, and tremella mushroom that can help strengthen your Lung's natural defenses. Each body is unique, and I'm always happy to help you discover what your particular constitution needs.

Floss Breathing: A Simple Practice

One of the most accessible ways to support your Lungs is through conscious breathing. I call this "floss breathing"—imagine your breath as dental floss, gently cleaning energetic and emotional stagnation and reconnecting you to your proper place between Heaven and Earth. This simple practice can be done anywhere, anytime you feel that tightness creeping in.

You can find a video on how to do Floss Breathing here:

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winter resilient spirit retreat November 2nd

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