Weekend self-care open thread: The autumn of the year
My friends, it's been a long week—and a long month—for your humble blog lord. I've been buffeted about by life's vicisitudes. Forgive me if I bring up our weekend self-care by one day.
This weekend we celebrate another turning of time, another milestone in our quotidian lives. That's right: it's autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The chill is beginning to set in, even here in sunny Southern California. Soon I'll be able to see my breath on chilly nights. Sweaters will come flying out of hibernation so that I can appear the proper gentleman-librarian. My wife and I will use the slow cooker twice a week to make hearty soups. The leaves will fall—yes, even here in Los Angeles. The rains will come and paint the hills green. For me autumn has always been that magical time of the year, where the shadows grow long and the days dark, meant for snuggling with loved ones.
Autumn presages the coming end of the year. The end of a year filled with both triumphs and disappointments. It is a time where we reflect as the earth goes to sleep, Persephone back in the underworld with her husband Hades, her mother Demeter mourning the going-away of her daughter. We begin to look back and note where we succeeded and where we didn't measure up. But I don't do this to mortify myself; the unexamined life is not worth living, and once we stop examining ourselves we stop being active and alive.
Autumn is, for me, the most wonderful time of the year. Summer's hubbub is done. Frivolous things are put away as you ponder what's gone before and what awaits. You begin to prepare for the coming new year, always hopeful, girding yourself to once more live the life you were meant to live.
Happy autumn equinox, everyone.
As always, dear friends, be ever kind to yourselves and those around you.
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