Autumn has always been my favorite season - the physical slowing down, the end of too-hotness and glaring sun and a welcoming of crisp leaves, scurrying animals, deep rich earth scents.
Autumn in Scotland brings a beauty of colour, I can see my breath change as the air gets colder, wiping condensation from inside windows a sure sign colder weather coming, lighting fires for warmth, favourite jumpers looked out, autumn colours everywhere in the fields, trees, sky, picking brambles to make bramble jelly, making soups and crusty bread for lunch, preparing delicious stews and mashed potatoes for supper, lighting candles as the night draws in, etc etc… I could go on! Autumn is like a comfort blanket to me, I love it 🍂
I love the two pictures separated by time in sentimental simplicity. I found that hugely impactful. Maybe it's just me (it might very well be) but when I see children I sometimes fast forward time in my head to see what they will be like as adults, these pictures provide that thoughtful time lapse in unquestionable accuracy.
To the rest, there is so much (as always) but I will try and get to the point:)
When I was young I used to dread the arrival of autumn and the end of the long summer holiday (one year we had NINE weeks of summer holiday!). I loved the last day of school before the holiday and dreaded the first day of school after the holiday. It heralded another effort of trying to fit in, to be accepted, to survive!
I know that feeling of having so many emotions and thoughts bottled up and for me writing song lyrics and listening to music provided and escape during my early years. So yes, writing is indeed my savior as well.
I am sorry you went through all that but also glad, as it shaped who you are today, as it did me.
"The leaves turn to brown and start to fall from the sky like tired wishes" Love this so much!
For me, this autumn/winter there are a few work changes I need to make and hopefully the right opportunities will present themselves. I also really need to edit my memoir Misfit and complete the final chapter - of the book not my life:)
Thank you for this deeply impactful and thought provoking post, as always:)
I have really come to love Autumn as my favourite season. I think for me it is knowing that it is a transitional season between Summer and Winter. Summer I tend to (unfairly?) take for granted. While Winter, I do enjoy, but there are less hours of sunshine and it does feel like a sort of hibernation season. Because of these two opposites, I tend to savour each day of Autumn that much more. I know as a season, it feels brief.
As for your questions, Jesse - such a great reflection exercise!
Q1. What is unfinished from Summer that you would like to complete, bring closure to, and/or continue/bring forward as we transition into the colder months?
A1. I want to start writing a book of poetry. I have been bouncing the idea around and mostly procrastinating on actually doing it since early Summer. I think Autumn and Winter will give me time to write the book. Spring and Summer present too many distractions with the longer sunshine and opportunities to hike and photograph Nature.
Q2.What do you want to focus on first for Autumn? Is there something you’ve already started and would like to give your attention to more deeply? And/or is there something completely new that you’re ready to begin with?
A2. I want to focus on reviving my Korean language abilities which have seriously degraded over the past decade. The past 2 weeks I have been relearning some words and phrases and it has been a nice time reacquainting myself with the language.
In Australia we are getting ready for Summer. Spring will soon be here. New creatures being born, duck parades across the roads as they usher their young towards the dams for a swim. New magpies calling to their mothers for food. New growth on the plants and that beautiful smell in the air.
To everything, turn, turn.
It’s been a winter of many coughs and colds for us. Our trees have been battling the many high winds this season has brought. Some didn’t make it but most did.
I don’t have any plans as such. I tend to just let the moment’s opportunity emerge and deal with what it brings.
We are expecting travellers from overseas for about four days, at the end of a much longer visit elsewhere.
Some much needed renovations have already started in the part of our house they will occupy. I do not like painting but find myself doing just that. I take my hat off to all the painters out there!
Hopefully our visitors will enjoy their time here. Australia is a very different place than their own. I try to remember that I’m helping to build a lovely memory for them as I drag out that roller and paint tray.
Enjoy the fall, it’s a season teaching us to let go of things we no longer need.🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂
Thank you for your thoughts, Jesse. I plan to use the energy of fall to accomplish some of the things left in the wake of my father's departure from this life. I feel I am off to a slow start - but a start has been made. Now to follow through and thank you for the inspiration to do some writing in "Harrowings" https://halgill.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Well. let's see: there is getting the firewood stacked under roof (never get ahead of that), grounds keeping now that vegetation is going dormant (never get ahead of that either), winterizing tractors and truck and machinery (never get ahead of that), cleaning the flues (best to get ahead of that) and maybe make time to bake some apple pies. Wanna' help?
Oh, apple. Right from the tree (crab apple makes best pie) and a good harvest. Going to try lard this year for crust, from my Amish friends, along with their maple syrup. Jealous?
Look at cute little you on the rug in the grass. If I was your pal at that age it would have been a flying carpet. Hope you are healthy and recharge for Libra season. Peace and love to you.
I don't feel I have anything to finish from last summer... For me Summer has always been a kind of parenthesis, I leave all tasks aside and just do nothing special (just being by the sea or wandering through the city). But there is something very important I left aside for many years which is writing. Well, for 12 years a write in a blog about my experiences in the art world, but I would like to write something more personal. I wrote a novel many years ago (40, more or less), and I feel it's time to do something with it. Last year an editor showed me interest in publishing it, and maybe I will contact her about it. Anyway, weather this project ends well or not, I feel the need of writing again.
Thanks for this post, Jesse. It has made me remember things I also felt (and forgotten through years), and has also put my ideas and purposes in order. Keep well (and keep on writing nice posts as this!)
Me toooo, I love all the clothes and aesthetics, the gearing up with warm things and getting cozy indoors. I love to hunker down for intake of books and movies, or output of music and writing and creativity :))
Autumn in the Eastern United States (where I spent the first 35 years of my life) was a welcome time. I welcomed the return of school, my escape from cold mother, an escape to the embrace of cool air and falling leaves and reading under trees.
Thank you for this message, Jesse. It resonates deeply with me. I especially identified with this, which you express so beautifully I have to quote it:
“I was a young person who felt and held the intensity of feelings like a sponge, bottled up and secretive, unable to understand or comprehend, and without the channels or desire to share these confusions with any living soul. Thank goodness for the arrival of mediums - writing and music - creative channels to release, express, process, and make meaning from these emotions and thoughts . . . “
I was that way as a young person too, and I still am, but I know now how much I need the mediums that you refer to, creative channels to release, express, process. This applies to creative expressions both coming in to and coming out from my consciousness. Those things rescued me, and they rescue me still. Your pointing to the phenomenon of being “spongelike” and needing mediums is itself a kind of rescue.
For me, fall is a time both of great beauty but also sorrow. I love to see the leaves turn to flaming red, orange, gold, but it also saddens me, as if they put on their fanciest dresses only to be stripped and left bare to brave the cold. When I was a little girl I would go around to all the bare trees and say to each: “You are still beautiful to me.”
One of my favorite poems is “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In it, an adult is speaking to a little girl (the poem is addressed “to a young child”) named Margaret. The adult asks Margaret why she is grieving over “Goldengrove unleaving.” At first he’s dismissive of her sorrow over the leaves falling and he tells her that when she grows up and has adult worries she won’t mind such things as the unleaving of trees. But then his tone changes and by the end he poem, he acknowledges that her sorrow over the trees is the same as the sorrow of all mankind: that everything dies. Her grieving now is the same as the grieving she will experience all her life: “It is the blight man was born for/ It is Margaret you mourn for.”
I love the beauty of Autumn and all that you have said it calls on us to experience. But the season always involves a sense of melancholy, a holding of the breath, wanting things to stay - wanting leaves to stay, wanting the warmth to stay, wanting to believe that everything alive will remain alive, wanting to believe - against all the evidence and against my own experience - that nothing that we cherish will ever die. Those, I know, are the wishes of a child. But somewhere in me there is always that little girl.
Below is the poem by Hopkins.
Thank you, as ever, Jesse, for your beautiful contemplations. I wish you, and everyone herein, peace and joy in this season of in-betweens.
"Thank goodness for the arrival of mediums - writing and music - creative channels to release, express, process, and make meaning from these emotions and thoughts." I'm always a bit torn when Autumn arrives, saying ‘goodbye’ to summer is sad. However, the older I get I seem to embrace it (Autumn) more. I find that I have more time to be creative. At least that’s the goal!
Once again thank you so much for your peaceful words and approach of situations / vibes. Just reading you put me in cocoon of soft velvet 🍂
Autumn has always been my favorite season - the physical slowing down, the end of too-hotness and glaring sun and a welcoming of crisp leaves, scurrying animals, deep rich earth scents.
Autumn in Scotland brings a beauty of colour, I can see my breath change as the air gets colder, wiping condensation from inside windows a sure sign colder weather coming, lighting fires for warmth, favourite jumpers looked out, autumn colours everywhere in the fields, trees, sky, picking brambles to make bramble jelly, making soups and crusty bread for lunch, preparing delicious stews and mashed potatoes for supper, lighting candles as the night draws in, etc etc… I could go on! Autumn is like a comfort blanket to me, I love it 🍂
I remember my aunt used to make pots and pots of bramble jelly every year:)
I love the two pictures separated by time in sentimental simplicity. I found that hugely impactful. Maybe it's just me (it might very well be) but when I see children I sometimes fast forward time in my head to see what they will be like as adults, these pictures provide that thoughtful time lapse in unquestionable accuracy.
To the rest, there is so much (as always) but I will try and get to the point:)
When I was young I used to dread the arrival of autumn and the end of the long summer holiday (one year we had NINE weeks of summer holiday!). I loved the last day of school before the holiday and dreaded the first day of school after the holiday. It heralded another effort of trying to fit in, to be accepted, to survive!
I know that feeling of having so many emotions and thoughts bottled up and for me writing song lyrics and listening to music provided and escape during my early years. So yes, writing is indeed my savior as well.
I am sorry you went through all that but also glad, as it shaped who you are today, as it did me.
"The leaves turn to brown and start to fall from the sky like tired wishes" Love this so much!
For me, this autumn/winter there are a few work changes I need to make and hopefully the right opportunities will present themselves. I also really need to edit my memoir Misfit and complete the final chapter - of the book not my life:)
Thank you for this deeply impactful and thought provoking post, as always:)
I’m in Cali. I just want to swim more. ♥️🕊️
I have really come to love Autumn as my favourite season. I think for me it is knowing that it is a transitional season between Summer and Winter. Summer I tend to (unfairly?) take for granted. While Winter, I do enjoy, but there are less hours of sunshine and it does feel like a sort of hibernation season. Because of these two opposites, I tend to savour each day of Autumn that much more. I know as a season, it feels brief.
As for your questions, Jesse - such a great reflection exercise!
Q1. What is unfinished from Summer that you would like to complete, bring closure to, and/or continue/bring forward as we transition into the colder months?
A1. I want to start writing a book of poetry. I have been bouncing the idea around and mostly procrastinating on actually doing it since early Summer. I think Autumn and Winter will give me time to write the book. Spring and Summer present too many distractions with the longer sunshine and opportunities to hike and photograph Nature.
Q2.What do you want to focus on first for Autumn? Is there something you’ve already started and would like to give your attention to more deeply? And/or is there something completely new that you’re ready to begin with?
A2. I want to focus on reviving my Korean language abilities which have seriously degraded over the past decade. The past 2 weeks I have been relearning some words and phrases and it has been a nice time reacquainting myself with the language.
Thank you Jessie for your thoughts.
In Australia we are getting ready for Summer. Spring will soon be here. New creatures being born, duck parades across the roads as they usher their young towards the dams for a swim. New magpies calling to their mothers for food. New growth on the plants and that beautiful smell in the air.
To everything, turn, turn.
It’s been a winter of many coughs and colds for us. Our trees have been battling the many high winds this season has brought. Some didn’t make it but most did.
I don’t have any plans as such. I tend to just let the moment’s opportunity emerge and deal with what it brings.
We are expecting travellers from overseas for about four days, at the end of a much longer visit elsewhere.
Some much needed renovations have already started in the part of our house they will occupy. I do not like painting but find myself doing just that. I take my hat off to all the painters out there!
Hopefully our visitors will enjoy their time here. Australia is a very different place than their own. I try to remember that I’m helping to build a lovely memory for them as I drag out that roller and paint tray.
Enjoy the fall, it’s a season teaching us to let go of things we no longer need.🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂
Thank you for your thoughts, Jesse. I plan to use the energy of fall to accomplish some of the things left in the wake of my father's departure from this life. I feel I am off to a slow start - but a start has been made. Now to follow through and thank you for the inspiration to do some writing in "Harrowings" https://halgill.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Well. let's see: there is getting the firewood stacked under roof (never get ahead of that), grounds keeping now that vegetation is going dormant (never get ahead of that either), winterizing tractors and truck and machinery (never get ahead of that), cleaning the flues (best to get ahead of that) and maybe make time to bake some apple pies. Wanna' help?
Which pie is your favorite?
Oh, apple. Right from the tree (crab apple makes best pie) and a good harvest. Going to try lard this year for crust, from my Amish friends, along with their maple syrup. Jealous?
Ooooh apple pies! With ice cream, too?? :D
Ice cream is a requirement.
Look at cute little you on the rug in the grass. If I was your pal at that age it would have been a flying carpet. Hope you are healthy and recharge for Libra season. Peace and love to you.
I don't feel I have anything to finish from last summer... For me Summer has always been a kind of parenthesis, I leave all tasks aside and just do nothing special (just being by the sea or wandering through the city). But there is something very important I left aside for many years which is writing. Well, for 12 years a write in a blog about my experiences in the art world, but I would like to write something more personal. I wrote a novel many years ago (40, more or less), and I feel it's time to do something with it. Last year an editor showed me interest in publishing it, and maybe I will contact her about it. Anyway, weather this project ends well or not, I feel the need of writing again.
Thanks for this post, Jesse. It has made me remember things I also felt (and forgotten through years), and has also put my ideas and purposes in order. Keep well (and keep on writing nice posts as this!)
This was very heartwarming, Jesse. Good advice for changing times… ♥️🤗
I embrace fall with such joy. I love the coziness of fall. It's quieter. I also love dressing for fall. I just feel really comfortable with fall.
Me toooo, I love all the clothes and aesthetics, the gearing up with warm things and getting cozy indoors. I love to hunker down for intake of books and movies, or output of music and writing and creativity :))
Autumn in the Eastern United States (where I spent the first 35 years of my life) was a welcome time. I welcomed the return of school, my escape from cold mother, an escape to the embrace of cool air and falling leaves and reading under trees.
Ohh this is so beautiful and sounds like a poem. Thank you for sharing :))
Thank you for this message, Jesse. It resonates deeply with me. I especially identified with this, which you express so beautifully I have to quote it:
“I was a young person who felt and held the intensity of feelings like a sponge, bottled up and secretive, unable to understand or comprehend, and without the channels or desire to share these confusions with any living soul. Thank goodness for the arrival of mediums - writing and music - creative channels to release, express, process, and make meaning from these emotions and thoughts . . . “
I was that way as a young person too, and I still am, but I know now how much I need the mediums that you refer to, creative channels to release, express, process. This applies to creative expressions both coming in to and coming out from my consciousness. Those things rescued me, and they rescue me still. Your pointing to the phenomenon of being “spongelike” and needing mediums is itself a kind of rescue.
For me, fall is a time both of great beauty but also sorrow. I love to see the leaves turn to flaming red, orange, gold, but it also saddens me, as if they put on their fanciest dresses only to be stripped and left bare to brave the cold. When I was a little girl I would go around to all the bare trees and say to each: “You are still beautiful to me.”
One of my favorite poems is “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In it, an adult is speaking to a little girl (the poem is addressed “to a young child”) named Margaret. The adult asks Margaret why she is grieving over “Goldengrove unleaving.” At first he’s dismissive of her sorrow over the leaves falling and he tells her that when she grows up and has adult worries she won’t mind such things as the unleaving of trees. But then his tone changes and by the end he poem, he acknowledges that her sorrow over the trees is the same as the sorrow of all mankind: that everything dies. Her grieving now is the same as the grieving she will experience all her life: “It is the blight man was born for/ It is Margaret you mourn for.”
I love the beauty of Autumn and all that you have said it calls on us to experience. But the season always involves a sense of melancholy, a holding of the breath, wanting things to stay - wanting leaves to stay, wanting the warmth to stay, wanting to believe that everything alive will remain alive, wanting to believe - against all the evidence and against my own experience - that nothing that we cherish will ever die. Those, I know, are the wishes of a child. But somewhere in me there is always that little girl.
Below is the poem by Hopkins.
Thank you, as ever, Jesse, for your beautiful contemplations. I wish you, and everyone herein, peace and joy in this season of in-betweens.
With warmth, always,
Robin
SPRING AND FALL
To A Young Child
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
"Thank goodness for the arrival of mediums - writing and music - creative channels to release, express, process, and make meaning from these emotions and thoughts." I'm always a bit torn when Autumn arrives, saying ‘goodbye’ to summer is sad. However, the older I get I seem to embrace it (Autumn) more. I find that I have more time to be creative. At least that’s the goal!
Yes!!! That's a great goal :)) And I know you super adore the summer and regular sunny trips to the island :)