Last night was a bit of a rough night. Between shoulder pain, and new found back pain, I couldn’t sleep. After tossing and turning for a few hours, and scrolling mindlessly through TikTok videos, I decided to sit outside for a while. It’s my quiet time. I love sitting outside when the rest of the world is quiet. Even if it is four in the morning. It’s currently 4:26 am as I write this out.
The weather has been up and down all week with really strong winds. It’s supposed to get extremely hot again this weekend with temperatures as high as 34C on Friday afternoon. But I suspect this is the last of the heat we’ll see for the year.
Early September is usually my favorite time of year. The days are warm, and the night cools off enough that it makes you want to curl up in bed with a warm fuzzy quilted blanket. The mornings can be chilly. But the best part – is you can finally wear sweaters again. I love sweaters.
It’s still technically summer here, for another week or so. Our autumn usually starts around mid-August. The leaves start turning golden yellow, crisp brown and auburn colors. Sometimes, if we’ve had very little rain, or too much rain, the leaves will start turning early in August.
The days are already getting shorter with the sun going down at 9:00 pm. That’s a sign that autumn is here. In a couple of weeks, the days will get even shorter and it will start getting dark around 8 or 8:30 pm. The sun wakes up later each morning until the dreaded time change that happens in November.
I just came in from outside. Even with my fleece and fuzzy pants on, it’s really cold out there. Like, what happened? Just a few days ago the temperature was 15C at night. I could sit out there without a jacket. But as the weeks go on, the temperatures start to drop a little more each night. By next week, we’ll be hitting single digits at night time.
But it’s not the weather changes that make me love this season. It’s so much more than that. It’s the beautiful colors that the leaves turn. It’s the golden sunsets. It’s waking up to cool crisp air in the morning. It’s seeing fresh dew on the grass. And frost on car windows.
To me, autumn is a reminder to slow down and reflect on the year that has passed.
Time moves so quickly that before you know it, fall will be over. Halloween will arrive. And Thanksgiving. And next thing you know, we’ll be hanging Christmas lights and writing cards for our loved ones. That’s when things become – chaotic.
Autumn.
Autumn is the time I often think about what I want for the next year. I start making a list of all my goals that I want to achieve. I start making lists, and plans. I think about how I can achieve those goals.
As someone who grew up in a family of Danish farmers, I know that autumn is the time for harvest. By September, the stores are usually full of delicious vegetables like zucchini, spaghetti squash, and pumpkins. It’s my favorite time of year for cooking vegetable stews, soups and casseroles. This year, I’m praying that the crops are healthy enough to provide the healthy foods we need to nourish ourselves.
The rest of the world around me is silent. The sky is still dark outside. The birds are quiet. There’s no traffic. I’m at ease. My mind is at peace. I’m listening to acoustic music and just enjoying the moment. For what it is.
Charmed Reflections 