Poor Will's Almanack: July 23 - 29, 2019

The philosopher and psychologist Carl Jung used the word, “synchronicity” to describe "temporally coincident occurrences" that may be related by their meaning. In the context of nature, the days themselves are formed and defined from “temporally coincident occurrences,” that is, events happening at the same time, events that reveal to the very blossom and tadpole the meaning of space and time. Things happen together: that is what makes the world make sense. Things like: The blooming of purple ironweed, the ripening of the first blackberries, the beginning of the passage of monarch butterflies, the start of late-summer’s night cricket song, the flocking of starlings and hummingbirds, the rasping calls of the katydids at night, and elderberries darkening for wine. The gilding of ragweed pollen, the falling of the first black walnut leaves. Honeysuckle berries and wild cherries ripen, and hickory nuts and black walnuts drop into the undergrowth. The season’s second-last wave of