Wow! It's been some time since I have sat down to blog. My mind has been racing and my creative veins aching to express themselves. Autumn is always a creative time for me. It’s a time to go inside, literally and figuratively. I seem to journal more, paint more draw and cook more. I find that all that has been absorbed through life wants an outlet and so I eventually sit down and create something new.
I guess I am, in a way, doing my form of hibernation. Going inside to create. Perhaps we all need time to go inside and reflect or just shut down. I think we often don't listen to the clues our bodies and minds are telling us. I have learned to listen closer to my internal needs for more rest, and when I do, I amazingly emerge from the other side full of life and new inspiration. It is good to listen...sometimes hard to hear but so worth it.
The one thing I have noticed about fall, is that it has seasons within seasons, tucked into each season itself. As the light shifts, so does the weather and with each shift I feel a shift in my own personal energy and needs. I don't know if this is just me, but it seems so noticeable. Each has its own unique energy and sensory feeling.
Early fall or beginning is just after the kids go back to school. I noticed the shift years ago after my husband returned from Europe and we went to the beach to play. It is a time of year when the weather here in California is often at its best. We have a number of perfect coastal days and some very hot inland days.
The air is still and calm. It's hard to explain if you have not experienced it but the calmness and stillness feels like magic. I hope that you can get the chance to visit a beach in Northern California if you haven't in the fall to experience this magic. All seems right with the world. It's not unlike right the feeling just before a baby is born to this world.
I get the urge to go outside and dig in the earth. I garden until late into the evening, splitting perennials, and planting new ones. I visit all my favorite flower shops and buy new plant friends and then rush home to get them into the ground. I just can't get enough of the earth during early fall. I love to dig in the ground it is so therapeutic for me. Gardening is my meditation. It makes me happy to be connected with the earth, even if it's simply weeding.
Then comes the second part of fall right before we have our day light savings. For me, I really feel like hibernating. I need more sleep, so naps become my friend. I also get the need to see close friends and share meals. I love to cook new recipes and share them with my friends during this time. Soups on at our house just bring a good loaf of the best bread you can find. Sharing a comforting and simple meal brings great joy to me.
Sip a small glass of wine and share with special friends indoors is a must in the fall. I feel the need to be very communal. Does anyone else feel this way?
Fall is a time of great transition. The leaves fall, light shifts, days become shorter and as the weather changes from hot to cold and back again, I feel this in my own soul. It’s a fickle time of year in California. One day its hot and the next cold. I feel fickle too, I range from being very energized and wanting to seize the day to the need to hibernate and take those needed naps. It seems to require more energy to do things in the fall and because this I like to protect my self in the fall and spare my energy. I try not to spend much time with things and people who are energy drains. I don't have the same tolerance than Iwould in say spring or Summer. Is it the interal hibernation clock? Who knows? I do think the season says, slow down and it is more organically closed than other times of the years. So I also find myself doing the same as nature.
Another aspect of fall is harvest time. Time to harvest ideas and create. Fall is time to do nothing. Fall is time to share. Share and perhaps let go. A good time to clean house, it's an organic time of renewal and introversion. Shed the unwanted and move on. Who needs the extra baggage as the weather chills.
This all happens just in time for Halloween. Halloween often marks the first colder nights here in California and the days begin to gradually darken and become cooler.
(Continued) Part 1
