Sunny and silent October afternoon......

Sunny and quiet afternoons in October bring me such peace.  I find myself dreaming and breathing in the amazing light as if I am storing it in my soul for the long dark winter days ahead.  The light is truly different in the month of October than any other month, it is thick like liquid gold and pours itself onto the trees and buildings like molasses.  I feel like I want to curl up with a good book and drink a hot cup of tea and enjoy each languishing moment, cherish it like a lovers caress.  These days of halcyon warmth and crispness in the evenings and mornings is truly my favorite time of the year. The feeling is inviting us to rest and store up the warmth so when we are feeling the cold we can remember these days and feel internal warmth from memory.  One of my favorite Fall children's books is Frederick by Leo Lionni about a mouse who is unusual and has unique habits unlike the other mice.

"While the other field mice work to gather grain and nuts for winter, Frederick sits on a sunny rock by himself. “I gather sun rays for the cold dark winter days,” he tells them. Another day he gathers “colors,” and then “words.” And when the food runs out, it is Frederick, the dreamer and poet, whose endless store of supplies warms the hearts of his fellow mice, and feeds their spirits during the darkest winter days."

I love the idea of what he is gathering and I have always felt this same need to pay attention to the moments in these fall afternoons that call me towards the quiet messages in the trees and the plants that are slowly going to sleep.  Nature's pace slows down and time seems suspended.  Poetry naturally flows on days like these. But gathering these kinds of esoteric things seems lost on our hurried modern life.  But I think the mice that are gathering nuts and seeds hurrying to and fro that are watching Frederick just sitting around thinking he is doing nothing are like the people who are constantly busy thinking they are accomplishing more than the individual contemplating each moment.  When we sync up with nature's pace and feel the pull towards the slowing down we are not only honoring the season but our place in it.  Flu and cold season, as it has become called, is nothing more than the bodies response to a summer's pace in Fall and Winter.  The body is telling you to slow down but when we do not listen the immune system is not up to tackling the illness and makes us stop and we end up doing the exact thing we could have done on our own, sit and read a book or stop and go home early to watch the leaves move in the silent breezes and fall gently to the earth.  So as you attune yourself to the pace of this beautiful time of year and slow your pace you will also be gathering in the necessary things to get you through the winter days.  Then you can truly begin to become part of the season in all ways and feel connected to the natural world which in turn will create a stock pile of energy to assist you when it is colder and darker.  Although this sounds so simple so many people resist this and end up getting very ill.  To sit still and think about ones life and place is frightening to some and yet it is the very thing this time of year calls us to do.  Go inward it whispers, go inward.  And when we do, we find a lovely flame that lives in us and is the reflection of the Sun in our outer world.  We are the sunshine and the rain and the wind.  We are part of all of it. So as you read this and feel the sunshine melting on your skin and warming you within know that you are a part of everything in your life.  Nothing exists outside of your witnessing.  If you want to change something then change you!! Change your pace and your beliefs and your circumstances .......change your lives by sitting still and letting go. Go within and feel the dormancy of this coming season of darkness, let yourself incubate with the stirrings of new ideas like so many seeds buried deep in the earth waiting until Spring to be born. Enjoy the peace and tranquility of this time where we get to curl up like a cat on the window sill and cease our hurried lives to take a nap in the warm sunshine.  Enjoy slowing down and have faith that when you need to get something done you will have the reserve now built up to complete those tasks.  For now I am going home and curl up on my comfy chair and sip on a cup of black tea and look at my favorite magazine, Victoria. What are you going to do this afternoon??

Autumn Blessings to all,
AnnKathleen