Preparing for Seasonal Change-autumn approaches

 Obon has come and gone. It’s generally believed by the people in our area that as the Obon candles melt down to nothing and the spirits return to their other worldly abodes summer follows. For me it’s a time to get ready for the autumn Biblical feast days of Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets), Yom Kippur ( the Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). 

Despite the heat we can definitely see that summer is fading and autumn is already waiting to emerge. 

My morning walks are quieter- the cicadas have mostly gone. A few frogs still croak among the rice fields-crickets have joined them now. 

Thick morning cloud cover hangs over the mountains in a couple of weeks we will wake up to fog shrouded neighborhoods. With this terrible hotter than usual summer we’ve had we are all looking forward to autumn. 

RIP summer cicada….

We were up on the mountain and saw that the momiji trees were starting to turn colors. I felt even more inspired. 

So inspired that I felt like baking bread. In the evening I hauled out an unfinished crochet project. I actually got it done over the weekend. 

We even turned on our little “fake-fireplace” fan heater. Of course we didn’t turn the heat function on! The “fire” gave a cozy ambiance to the evening. 

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I’ve let life get far too busy. I started to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the things I was trying to accomplish. I work online and can make my own schedule and the pressure of hubby not having work because no one wants to hire “older people” in Japan spurred me to take on more and more. With the little time I had left over I’d try and squeeze in some time for my hobbies like reading, drawing, crochet. But to be honest, the time felt rushed and stressful and many times I’d end up not doing anything but scrolling on my phone- which made me feel worse! My brains felt so overwhelmed it’s all I could do. 

So autumn is coming….my intention is to make some changes in my life. To embrace slowness a bit more. I have to work- can’t get around it but I want to live in such a way that work doesn’t become life. And that I don’t stress out about not working enough. I want to learn to relax and be okay with what we have and don’t have. 

I have a book here called “In Praise Of Slowness” by Carl Honoré. I’ll give it a read and see if there’s any inspiration there. 

I mean- I know how to slow down- but it seems that the real battle is in the mind. So I’d like to prepare for autumn- this season of slowing down and preparing for winter.. by learning how to slow not just my physical life but my internal life.