{"id":29204,"date":"2023-08-02T03:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=29204"},"modified":"2023-08-03T08:27:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T14:27:28","slug":"august-is-the-worst-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html","title":{"rendered":"August is the Worst Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Can I be honest? I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. Nothing traumatic has happened and I\u2019m not facing any sort of imminent danger. I\u2019m not in an existential crisis or dark night of the soul. But the Awen isn\u2019t flowing. Writing \u2013 whether for the blog, a book, or anything else \u2013 is almost impossible. And it\u2019s not just writing \u2013 it\u2019s pretty much everything at the moment.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time this has happened \u2013 and I\u2019m pretty sure it won\u2019t be the last. One of the advantages of getting older is that you\u2019ve seen things like this before, not once or twice but numerous times. That doesn\u2019t make them any less unpleasant and frustrating, but at least you know you\u2019ll get through it, because you always have.<\/p>\n

You know what else comes with getting older? A lot of notes\u2026 at least if you keep good notes. And I do. Looking through those notes, this same pattern shows up time and time again in early August. It\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. That\u2019s not all of it. The political environment is toxic, and there are some difficulties that are mainly mine.<\/p>\n

But August is the worst month.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the fact that on average, the first week of August is the hottest week of the year in North Texas. It\u2019s supposed to be 106 F (41 C) today and there\u2019s no end to the 100 degree days (with no rain) in sight. Some years are hotter and some years aren\u2019t quite so hot, but it\u2019s always miserable in Texas this time of year. The older I get the less I tolerate the heat, which means the more I stay indoors. I\u2019m thankful for air conditioning, but I\u2019m concerned about the electric bill. We have good insulation, good air conditioners, and two beautiful live oak trees in our south-facing front yard, but electric rates have gone up like everything else and this month is going to be astronomical. But I\u2019d rather pay it than roast.<\/p>\n

I like sports more than the average Pagan. I\u2019m not obsessed with them, but they provide a nice diversion. This time of year the only major team sport going is baseball. But while I\u2019m happy about the rules changes implemented this year (the pitch clock is a good thing even though it shouldn\u2019t be necessary) it\u2019s going to take a more than one year to rebuild the interest I lost because of steroids, a structure where the big market teams get all the good players, and analytics sucking the soul out of the game. We do have the Women\u2019s World Cup this year, but I\u2019m not a huge soccer fan and the U.S. team isn\u2019t having a good run, at least through group play.<\/p>\n

Spiritually, this is a rather dry time as well. Lughnasadh<\/a> is worth celebrating and I had a good time at the Denton CUUPS ritual last Saturday. But it\u2019s not a very popular sabbat, and our turnout reflected that. Plus it was hot. We couldn\u2019t be outside, and the air conditioners couldn\u2019t handle 101 degrees plus radiant heat from the sun plus the heat load generated by a bunch of people. And because the quarters and cross quarters aren\u2019t evenly spread on the calendar (at least as they\u2019re actually celebrated by most people) it will be eight weeks until the next high day\u2026 the Fall Equinox, which is also not a popular sabbat.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Does this sound like whining? \u201cFirst world problems\u201d? Maybe it is. Or maybe it\u2019s the Anglo-American insistence on ignoring the seasons and \u201cbeing productive\u201d year-round, with two weeks of vacation and a few days off at the end of the year \u2013 if you don\u2019t work in retail or hospitality.<\/p>\n

In a more reasonable world, things would be slower this time of year. Perhaps that\u2019s the reason the Pagan world doesn\u2019t have much going on in August \u2013 we intuitively feel the need to slow down, stay out of the heat, drink lots of water, and think about what we\u2019re going to do when things aren\u2019t so hot. Which here is usually about the middle of September, though some years it\u2019s much later. Trying to map the agricultural calendar of Iron Age Britain and Ireland onto the American Southwest is problematic, but celebrating Samhain as Summer\u2019s End is a very good fit.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best thing about seasons is that they always change. This is our hottest week, which means cooler temperatures are coming, eventually if not right away. The longest day of the year was six weeks ago, which means you can now tell that the days are getting shorter<\/a>. NFL training camps are in full swing, which means football will be back soon. The Hall of Fame game is tomorrow night. It\u2019s meaningless, but it\u2019s football. I do feel sorry for the high school players who are starting practice this week, but they\u2019ll be working early before it gets dangerously hot. There are rules and precautions to prevent heat-related complications \u2013 most coaches take them seriously. Most <sigh>.<\/p>\n

And as for me, well, some things never change. Daily spiritual practice goes on day in and day out. Weekly offerings and meditations go on week in and week out. These core spiritual practices keep me going in good times and in bad.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m confident the Awen will start flowing again, because it always has. Eventually the words start coming and the pages start filling. At least as long as I sit down and work at it. To mildly paraphrase the immortal Dorothy Parker, writing is the art of applying ass to seat and fingers to keyboard.<\/p>\n

I have three open weekends this month. It\u2019s the worst month, the hottest month, and I\u2019m not going to overschedule myself. I scheduled joy<\/a> one weekend\u2026 or at least, I hope it will be a joyful experience. You can never be sure \u2013 you have to take the risk.<\/p>\n

And I have work to do that has deadlines, and I do not miss deadlines. Commitments \u2013 to my Gods, to my community, and to myself \u2013 must be kept no matter how hot and depressing things get. That will probably fill my open weekends. And that\u2019s OK. There will still be time to watch old movies and read new books.<\/p>\n

Sometimes things getting better requires making them better, either by changing your circumstances or by doing some things or both. That\u2019s a matter of will. Other times it\u2019s a matter of waiting for the seasons to turn. In my case, it\u2019s a little of both. Just writing this in a stream of consciousness manner (which I almost never do) has helped. I feel better than I did when I put my ass in this seat and my fingers on this keyboard.<\/p>\n

And it also helps to remember that while August is the worst month, it only has 29 more days.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":29210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4418,4,5,412],"class_list":["post-29204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-august","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-summer"],"yoast_head":"\nAugust is the Worst Month<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"August is the Worst Month\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-02T09:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-03T14:27:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/08\/August-is-the-worst-780x439-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html\",\"name\":\"August is the Worst Month\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-02T09:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-03T14:27:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"August is the Worst Month\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"August is the Worst Month","description":"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"August is the Worst Month","og_description":"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2023-08-02T09:00:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-03T14:27:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":432,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/08\/August-is-the-worst-780x439-1-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html","name":"August is the Worst Month","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-02T09:00:32+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-03T14:27:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"I\u2019m struggling a bit at the moment. This shows up time and time again in early August \u2013 it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s something about this time of year that doesn\u2019t agree with me. August is the worst month.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/08\/august-is-the-worst-month.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"August is the Worst Month"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}