When the land and the water are still warm and the nights begin to get cooler, mornings are often drenched in fog.
Fog is such a quiet, beautiful gift. It muffles the world and reminds us of the importance of Silence.
Also in a deep fog, it’s a good idea not to blunder around aimlessly. It’s hard to know where you’re going. So sit still and wait for the fog to pass.
Enjoy the Silence. Enjoy the Beauty. Enjoy the Peace. Happy Sunday, Everyone!
This is one of those photos when you wonder why you bother to write! Fall fogs and large birds wading on rivers that somehow have found enough light to cast reflections.
It really is a reminder to look, look, look around. Every season has its beauty.
We just need to show up and be present. We need to allow ourselves to be fed by what is and, at the same time, fueled to protect it.
We need to stop being casual about what goes in the water. We need to stop being casual about Peace. It’s this morning, pictured here, and it’s everything that has to happen to make the river safe for the land and the birds and animals.
The weather was doing its fall best for a while, and then boom, it’s back to summer weather, or will be if the cloud cover disappears. Just for a few days, enough to confuse us!
But our taste buds were happy to change directions. mmmm winter soups! Squashes, fruits, onions, cheeses. Okay, I made the cheese thing up, but I like cheese in my soups! Maybe not this one, but some soups! Nothing could be finer.
One way or the other though, I tastebuds accept the Peace offering. Soup is good food!
The sweetest of Autumn to you, my friends, and I wish you the Peace of the soup pot!
I think there are two things (at least for the purpose of this writing!) that we often forget. Change is constant. We’re all connected.
So it’s always this and that. Each season has within it both the season before and the season arriving. The land grows fields and trees according to whim both Earthly and Human. The clouds and the blue replace one another endlessly.
We are all these things. We are every kind of person.
We need to stop acting as if that were not true.
We need to Peace. let us Peace.
Autumn is coming. The question around here is whether or not it will come in wild color since we’re in the middle of a drought. In that case the trees preserve their energy and settle down for the winter, dropping their leaves early in the season.
One way or the other, fall will be beautiful here. There will be gorgeous, crisp, clear days and we will rejoice (while kvetching about the fact that the days are shorter). There will be chilly nights to huddle under blankets and sleep deeply. There may well be, as the equinox implies: some balance.
And beauty. There is always beauty. Scott, the photographer, lives a block from where I grew up. His snaps out the back window always bring sweet memories. We live alongside a beautiful river! Both branches of it! Wishing you all the Peace of the Autumn Valley.
Trish took a wonderful picture that screams end of Summer. The Sunset is a Fall beauty. The family in the boat is a family sneaking in one last, lovely memory of Summer 2016.
Time to take the Summer toys home and put them away. Now it’s cool and rainy — and oh, do we need the rain. We’ve gotten more than an inch in the last two days and two more days of rain planned. I just had a cozy beginning to a Saturday morning — cuddled up to finish a new mystery. A perfect slow rainy beginning to a busy weekend.
Time to pull out the fall/winter clothes. Time to clear out everything that’s left over from the summer, finish up that last writing and begin the new. My beloved guests are home in their lives, I’ve started cold weather swimming, time to order the velour and get ready for cozy, busy Fall.
Peace may look a little different this month than it did last, but Peace is right here, waiting for us to discover it, to pursue it, to promote it, to make it. Peace of a rainy Autumn morning to you my friends.
And enjoy this last memory of a lovely Summer.
Even though the weather remains warm, there’s no disguising that summer has been transformed into fall. The days are shorter, the sun less direct. The fields are golden, final crops are being harvested. The skin on fruits and vegetables is thicker; fall offerings replace summer. And pushed along by the drought the leaves are beginning to turn.
When I’m not seeing this all through the lens of a swimmer losing her outdoor pools, I am amazed at the abundance. And apples are coming!
The cycle of the year is so astounding. And, yet, it’s so easy to ignore the rolling bounty. All year long, every day, something magical happens. Too often we deprive ourselves of the wonder by focusing on what we don’t have. What we don’t have anymore. What we don’t have yet. What we don’t have, period.
Now is the time of the ingathering. I thought about this last night as I was writing the musing to respond to this beautiful photo. I had just finished a conversation with a dear friend who lost his mother. It was her time to be gathered back in at the end of a very long life. Now he has the memories to preserve. He’ll mourn, even while knowing they lived every last drop of her life and her love.
The wheel of the year continues to roll. Let us gather in, enjoy, preserve, and share the Peace just as we gather in, enjoy, preserve and share the Bounty of the season. Blessed be.
Just like that the weather changed. Oh, the warmth will be back, but it will be temporary. The Equinox is just around the corner, the days are getting shorter, we’ve had a drought, so the leaves are already thinking about leaving. Fall is headed our way.
That means the food is changing. Those luscious summer fruits and vegetables will be giving way to those luscious fall fruits and vegetables. But they demand a different kind of accompaniment… Time to stock up and get that pantry ready.
And time for us to think differently about Peace as well. When the sun shines and everyone’s out playing, it’s easy to be vaguely friendly. We have things to do, pools to swim in! But now, as the weather changes, we’ll be inside more. Time to stock our Peace Pantry as well as our food Pantry.
How are we going to cook up Peace this fall? What are the needed ingredients? Let’s think about this, shall we? Peace, it’s what’s good for us! And if we do our work, it could be what’s for dinner every night of the week.
Yesterday, the weather changed. All of that language about when will this heat and humidity ever end, and this morning, it’s gone.
On the one hand. It’s a great thing. Seasons change; as we progress into Fall, the weather patterns change. Kids are going back to school; it’s much more fun when it’s not 90˚! On the other hand, the pool closes, and its so hard for me to let the season go. And the cool evening temperatures mean the garden bounty begins to lessen.
Conclusions? Swim outside now! Eat those tomatoes now! Enjoy the watermelon now!
Because Summer Peace belongs to summer. Activities and foods change as we move toward Fall. There are wonderful things ahead of us.
But oh, my swimming and my tomatoes. (and my corn on the cob! and melons! and!)
Peace can’t be taken for granted in the future. It must be recommitted to every day. Here’s to swimming and tomatoes and corn today. That’s the Peace of the day. Tomorrow will be a different Peace and require new commitments.
We’ll make those then. But today, again, I’ll eat a ‘mater sammich, and melon, and peaches and corn. I’ll swim and enjoy the Peace of today. Tomorrow; we’ll see what Peace tastes like and feels like.
We’ve had some incredibly hot evenings, but these past couple have been incredible.
Perfect temperatures; beautiful full Moon. Adding to the glory, I’m sure is the realization that this won’t go on forever. So we have to grab it now and revel!
It’s important not to miss the clues the Mother Earth gives us. Last night’s clue? Was certainly Peace.
And This morning looks like the start of a great day! Enjoy it. Peace be with you!
