Showing posts with label autumn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autumn. Show all posts

Autumn


In the Northern Hemisphere, we move into Autumn. The arc of the sun shrinks on the horizon. Days shorten. The light becomes sharper on clear, dry days.

It is easy to ignore the turning of the seasons in an urban environment. Our lives, tied to illuminated panels, large and small, are less impacted by the shrinking hours of natural light. The projected world, a transmitted construct of bytes and code, fuses with the natural world in our distracted minds.

Get out. Look around. Breathe deeply. Leave the iPhone at home. Walk (not ride) in the world and look at the houses, the trees, the gardens. Meet the eyes of your neighbors. Stop and talk with someone who is working or sitting in a yard or on a porch.

The time is coming when this activity will be more difficult, less attractive. Take advantage of the season. Be present in your natural environment, whatever and wherever it may be.

Autumn


Taking the time to appreciate the seasons is essential to becoming a mindful citizen of the planet. Walking in nature facilitates this. It revives the senses and stimulates thoughts and feelings, which pertain to the personal relationship between each of us and the planet.

Autumn here in New England is especially dramatic and provocative. The visual and aromatic changes are not at all subtle. The light changes drastically around the autumnal equinox. Suddenly there is shade where none existed for months. The color of everything is changed by the new light. Dawns and dusks become vivid, almost melodramatic. Gardens begin to shrink and die in stages. Fall flowers puff out their chests with desperate bravado.

I revel in autumnal change. I am in the autumnal stage of my own life cycle. My practice entails being where I am as fully and appreciatively as possible. Including time on foot in nature makes this practice easier and more enjoyable.

Autumn

delight in the death
the browning smell
the blue metal skies
winter's mild warning

delight in the death
see your own in it
accept it and inhale
release your breath

delight in the death