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Thursday 7th September 2023
I’m sitting in my bedroom / office.
There’s a heatwave outside.
In September.
I know that this time next month I will probably be wishing to have some of this heat back, but for now I delight in the possibilities of Autumn.
Candles - the smell changes from the crisp, citrusy, fresh scents I enjoy in my home, to something more cosy. Perhaps still citrus but with added tones of ambered wood and sage. Smells to help me relax, to tuck into a book that grips me through the early dark nights. Or maybe one that accompanies me as I sit with a pen and a notebook, getting my thoughts down on paper.
Cold air after exercise - A feeling I live for. My body using the natural temperature outside as I step out of a stuffy gym into the season on the cusp of winter. Walking home with my water bottle never leaving my mouth but my body heat decreasing enough for me to stop hearing my blood pumping through my ears.
Tea - I never need a reason to drink tea but the tea I drink this time of year is herbal, caffeine free, cosy and warm. It’s much less of a caffeine boost to get me through the day and more of keeping me comfortable and happy as I get through the tasks I have to do.
Orange - Orange everywhere. Signifying the end of a life cycle for the trees, the colour of the lampposts in the street as they illuminate the way when it starts to get dark at 4pm. The colour of my spiced cookie candle or the apple and cinnamon tea that I devour regularly as I sit down for a writing session.
A slower pace of life - In the summer days, we’re expected to be doing. To “seize the day”, to be productive, to do, do, do. I welcome the darker mornings and the sleepier starts and ends. They promote us to be slow. To relax more and to enjoy a change of pace that is needed for any change of season. To be, yes. But does this have to be doing?! I say no.
A day has passed since beginning to write this and I finish the rest of it after a morning walk. I’m usually up and in the gym by 6.30am but this morning my body says no. I listen and take things slowly. I leave for my walk at 7am and I’m glad of this change of pace. It helps me notice the things I might not have noticed otherwise. The sun is yet to reach the frost of an orange Mini Cooper parked up outside of my apartment block and there’s heavy dew sitting on the spider webs that were constructed overnight.
Despite the heatwave, I can smell the change in the air. It smells colder. The landscape is also changing. Not quite obvious yet but I notice the deep greens are becoming pale, closer to yellow. A theme throughout my walk as I head through the park and out towards the bay trail.
Towards the end of my walk, I head over the flyover and notice in amongst the traffic, the morning people on their daily commute. They’re the ones singing loudly in their cars with their voices soundproofed by their moving vehicles. Some are bopping along violently whilst others are tapping animatedly on their steering wheels. There are runners out in full force. Walkers too. Some for leisure, some on their commute. Same with the cyclists. I wonder momentarily, how many of these drivers are runners, cyclists and walkers in the summer months? Whether they change with the seasons. Whether the music they listen to now, is the same music they listen to in the heights of Summer.
I think about the ants that have taken residency in my kitchen these last few months. A nuisance, yes. But a pattern in their operation all the same. Seeing them more on the hot days but noticing their decline as the colder weather creeps in. What do they make of this heatwave that we’re having? I’m sure they’re as confused about the current temperature as I am about them still being there despite all our efforts to get rid of them.
Sometimes our expectations for a specific season and for when that season starts are skewed.
Seasons require a different perspective, a different way of doing things. To embrace the mundane but to do so adapting to the change of environment. The change in circumstances.
We shouldn’t stay the same.
We prefer some seasons to others. But each one requires changing, evolving, resetting, reshaping.
What works in the height of Summer doesn’t work in the depths of Winter.
We adapt.
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