Long day, long week, but work is done and I will look forward to spending some time with a good friend. It’s very comforting being here in her home, listening to her in the other room interacting with her husband, talking over various mundane elements of their lives: doctor’s appointments, conversations with friends in the neighborhood, upcoming social events they’ve been invited to. The regular, ordinary things of life.
I know I spend a lot of time expressing gratitude for the simple blessings, and I do not apologize for that. It is often in the simple, routine activities in life that provide a sense of comfort and satisfaction. It is wonderful to be grateful for big things: promotions on jobs, unexpected financial windfall, a deepening significant relationship, and other major blessings. Those things happen from time to time and are wonderful. But it is the simple things that allows me to practice daily gratitude, as well as the ah ha’s and insights that I gain over the course of a given day.
I am grateful for this season of Autumn. This week the weather is much more brisk, reminding us that the winter and the time for quieting, stilling is soon to come. The turning of the clocks back an hour now means driving home in the dark. The shortening of days will soon mean leaving in the dark as well as returning as night falls. Metaphorically, autumn in the northern hemisphere represents harvest time, the season for gathering in the fruits of all that was sown in the spring and tended throughout the summer. It’s time for preserving and preparing those fruits in sufficient supply to carry us through the long winter months. It is definitely a time for slowing down activities and preparing to turn inward for the reflective retreat that is winter. It sure feels like it is coming and soon.
In many ways, I am in the autumn of my life. In some Native American traditions, I am transitioning from the season of adulthood (autumn) into the season of elderhood. The seasons are often associated with the four cardinal directions (east/spring, south/summer, west/autumn, and north/winter) corresponding with four stages of life (early childhood, teenage and youth, adult, and elder and ultimately dying and death.) As I think about my life ahead I have more days behind me than before me. And that is alright with me. It is part of the cycles of life. I am grateful to be moving through the autumn of my life. Autumn, like spring, is a fairly unpredictable season. Last week we had an 80 degree, sunny, summer-like day followed by a 50 degree, dreary and cool day. My life has definitely had some unpredictable elements that have definitely kept me on my toes. But my hope is that, as I move forward into elderhood, toward the winter season, the unpredictability will begin to calm down as we settle into a more predictable winter pattern.
I am grateful for the seasons of my life. Each one has had something to teach me, and I continue to learn on a daily basis. I remain grateful for the daily, simple reminders that pop up all around me that life is good, a gift to be appreciated, expressed and shared with those around us. I look forward to continuing the learning. Tomorrow is a brand new day. Wonder what I will learn. To be continued…
