Hearting autumn: Being close to the rhythms of seasons

It’s around this time of year where I tend to get very excited. It’s not necessarily because there is often a lot of shifting in life happening around this time, with many vacations culminating and work beginning again – although that is exciting in itself. There is some indescribable resonance about this time of the year. The first morning after a long summer (however disappointing the summer was, weather-wise) when the air gets the most subtle of cold tinges to it – not just the cooling effect of wind alone but a cold kind of imbuement to it – that’s what rouses me first. It wakes me, reminds me; signals in the most minute of ways to me that there is so much sensory abundance to come over the next few months from the rich and beautiful season that is autumn.

There is far too much for me to romanticise about autumn here: the earthen smells, the umber hues and auras of evenings to name a few. This is also not forgetting what philosophy thinks of autumn, that we must see and be aware of the death of things to appreciate life (the dialectic). I won’t go further because I don’t feel that describing this really matters – besides, you’ve probably heard something like that before somewhere. What matters is that something is at work. Something subtle, a sort of cadence which resonates with my own measure. It’s around this time of year that I suddenly experience some sort of creative boost if I go for a walk or sit observing for a time. Obviously I’m not complaining about that, however it does raise a few questions.

The first is why exactly it happens at all. Could it be something to do with inherent human nature? It’s not uncommon for people to relish the summer months and feel energised by the brighter, hotter weather. Some people hate it. It’s a matter of taste and how the body reacts to different climatic conditions in that sense. However, that doesn’t mean that other seasons do not have the capacity to inspire. For instance, I’m not a fan of summer myself but I will still feel stirred to write more lingering verse in hotter weather.

So secondly, this is what leads me to think that it’s triggered more by what the mind finds from what is presented to it: I am presented with a season so full of ‘things’ happening that I feel not only the inspiration to write, I feel a soulful shift happening as an underlying current. It’s hard to ignore a dynamic like that; there’s no doubt it will come out in what I write in some capacity.

The final thought I want to give is that whatever time of year that inspires you it’s the subtleties that really hold the most worth and joy. The small things. The things that you might see in a moment or fleeting instance which strike you. The scenes you might want to take a picture of, the smells you might want to take another lungful of. Being close to the rhythms of the world around you is part of making you feel a natural human being – not a robotic office droid. Be aware of the seasons and know them: they are what make up our earth and world.