Rawan and other effigies...
Driving out of my city to a meeting, I saw an effigy in a field… towering, towering over the surrounding houses. Rawan.
Rawan is the central antagonist in the Hindu epic, Ramayana. His character is prominently featured in Ramleela, a dramatic performance of the Ramayana, and yearly, he is burnt in effigy.
Derek Walcott’s Nobel acceptance speech seems to find me around this time each year. He says:
"Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole."
It feels like everywhere we turn, there’s significant sound and fury. The world is louder, faster—always in motion. Time is moving, the seasons are changing. Here, the temperature is cooling down (even if only marginally, staying just above 22 degrees Celsius), and the days are growing shorter. There’s an energy in the air now—a quieting, a slowing, a shift. Even if subtle, it calls for reflection.
"The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape."
We move toward Diwali, All Saints, and All Souls—the day of the dead, and Halloween—celebrations of remembrance, of honouring those who have passed, and of reflecting on our own place in this cycle of life. These are moments of reverence, stillness, and connection to those who came before us. In many ways, these celebrations are linked by the same thread—a recognition of what’s gone and what remains, an acknowledgement of both light and shadow.
This is also the exact process of creating poetry—or what should be called not its “making,” but its remaking: the fragmented memory, the armature that frames the god, even the rite that surrenders it to a final pyre. The god assembled cane by cane, reed by weaving reed, line by plaited line…
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What are you reflecting on as we move through this season?
With all the energy in the air—the lights of Diwali, the solemnity of All Saints, the warmth of remembrance during All Souls, and the ancient symbolism of burning Rawan—I’m curious about how you’re experiencing this time. What are you letting go of? What are you tending to with love?
As the year winds down, it’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on what we need to release, what distractions are clouding our focus, what’s whole and shining, and what cracked things we choose to tend to and lovingly mend.
Let’s take a moment to exhale, to let go of the unnecessary noise, to receive the abundant inrush of breath, to make space and safety, and to focus on what truly matters as we transition toward the close of this year.
If you want a gentle, safe opportunity to reboot, to start or refresh your breath practice, join us in the Breath Reboot beginning on November 1.
"Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole. The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape."
Wishing you peace, clarity, and a sense of light as we move into the season of longer shadows.
_A
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