Amazing to find someone else who has Summer SADS. Everyone always just thinks I'm crazy, but they didn't write Summertime Blues for nothing. So loving autumn and the time to slow down and reflect. Thanks for a wonderful post.
I've never liked the song as a whole, but there's a line of lyric that goes "wake me up when September ends," and that pretty much encapsulates it for me.
Love this from beginning to end, Chris -- especially " For now though I intend to revel in the gifts of beauty the universe continues to bestow on us every day." Amen. (I'm a Pollyanna of winter, too. I love the dark, cold months and look forward to them every year.)
Suffering a bout of anxiety once, unable to sleep, I go up and was intending to read in another room. As soon as I turned on a light, the darkness, the very thing that I had thought was causing my distress, became *darker*. In creating artificial light, I had repelled the fragments, the slivers, the rays of the night's offerings. Learning to sit and embrace it was calming. Thanks for another lovely piece.
"We are all holding hands and climbing." I love how often I'm encountering a similar message, in different words, rippling out and overlapping, these last few years. They've been a hell of a few years, no? -- and one good thing to come of them is how many of us are really starting to figure this mutuality thing out. A friend of mine, a Lutheran pastor, likes to quote the version attributed to Ram Dass: "We are all just walking each other home." I don't know that I have anything at all figured out, but I do appreciate the opportunity to send some direct help to a friend of a friend.
Hafiz knew mutual aid before it was hip! So beautiful. May we all remember the true strength that care for one another can gift us. Thank you for looking out for your friend AND for letting the rest of us help do the same 🧡
And here's a little cheer for the dark, cold months and those of us who love them.
(Edited to add that as I was reading this, my playlist started a song called "Sweet Apocalypse," and the feel of it was very fitting for the mood here.)
Thank god, that's the one I listened to. Though if I'd had to put money on it, I'd have guessed that's the one you listened to too because I think I just might know you a *little* bit by now, Nia... 😉
i also am grateful for your sharing of support for your friend and the need and uplift of mutual aid--sending her good healing thoughts and donated. And i feel so seen by all these great autumn winter people! thank you for that too!
Omg, a wasp UP YOUR NOSE?!? Whew. No no no. I am with you on fall, I feel like the year finally starts at Labor Day. Summer is the season of too hot and too many people and I prefer the rest. Fall is always the best weather, and of course it's the best time to travel almost everywhere in the US but it's also the best time to be here so you know. I love that time in the morning when I first get up. I rarely turn on lights in my house - there's enough light from the little lights that tell me such and such is still plugged in and operating anyway, even with blackout curtains. I love looking out at the stars. From my bedroom window I can see the milky way if I'm really really lucky but usually just some stars that remind me where it is. I love the time before sunrise, I can't wait to be back out in that again.
And you are correct, we are all holding hands and climbing.
On a day where the future portends sadness and loss for my family, your article was uplifting and reminded me we are one. I feel the hands holding mine on this climb. Thank you.
I live in a place where the seasons are still quite distinct (for now anyway). There seems to be a particular energy, an electricity in the air as Fall winds us down toward Wintering. Maybe created out of the friction of Summer’s green abundance grinding slowly dormant? I love it.
I made a small donation to Ando. Thanks for sharing.
This is so beautiful, Chris. It’s the start of the Jewish New Year, and in some ways it feels so off-beat -- the start of the year when everything is dying? -- but in other ways, yes, exactly this, we start anew when we don’t need to squint any more, we can open our eyes & reflect. (Also, donated -- I’ll send you an email.)
Thank you, Hannah. I got your email! And also, the Pagan New Year is November 1st, and I tend to feel more emotionally and spiritually connected to that as well. Here's to beginning in decline!
If you ever make tshirts they should say, "I thrive in gloom." I'd buy one.
prayers up for ando
That's not a bad idea....
Amazing to find someone else who has Summer SADS. Everyone always just thinks I'm crazy, but they didn't write Summertime Blues for nothing. So loving autumn and the time to slow down and reflect. Thanks for a wonderful post.
Thank you, and welcome to fall. We've been waiting all year!
We are more numerous than we realized!
A long time ago a fellow copy editor and summer-disliker taught me a word I didn't know I needed: "Estivate" means "to pass the summer in a state of torpor or dormancy" -- basically, to hibernate for the summer: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/estivate-hibernate-animals-deal-with-summer-heat
I've never liked the song as a whole, but there's a line of lyric that goes "wake me up when September ends," and that pretty much encapsulates it for me.
😂🧡
I'm another one. As the days grow shorter and cooler, my spirit rejoices to see more and more night sky.
Happy to have you in the club!
Love this from beginning to end, Chris -- especially " For now though I intend to revel in the gifts of beauty the universe continues to bestow on us every day." Amen. (I'm a Pollyanna of winter, too. I love the dark, cold months and look forward to them every year.)
Thank you, Sarah.
Suffering a bout of anxiety once, unable to sleep, I go up and was intending to read in another room. As soon as I turned on a light, the darkness, the very thing that I had thought was causing my distress, became *darker*. In creating artificial light, I had repelled the fragments, the slivers, the rays of the night's offerings. Learning to sit and embrace it was calming. Thanks for another lovely piece.
That's wonderful, Jessica, and well said. Thank you.
"We are all holding hands and climbing." I love how often I'm encountering a similar message, in different words, rippling out and overlapping, these last few years. They've been a hell of a few years, no? -- and one good thing to come of them is how many of us are really starting to figure this mutuality thing out. A friend of mine, a Lutheran pastor, likes to quote the version attributed to Ram Dass: "We are all just walking each other home." I don't know that I have anything at all figured out, but I do appreciate the opportunity to send some direct help to a friend of a friend.
Thank you, Tara. I like the idea of "walking each other home."
Hafiz knew mutual aid before it was hip! So beautiful. May we all remember the true strength that care for one another can gift us. Thank you for looking out for your friend AND for letting the rest of us help do the same 🧡
And here's a little cheer for the dark, cold months and those of us who love them.
(Edited to add that as I was reading this, my playlist started a song called "Sweet Apocalypse," and the feel of it was very fitting for the mood here.)
Now I'm listening to a song called "Sweet Apocalypse" and it isn't the one Moby apparently does because ... I just can't.
Oh dear. No, that’s not it!
This is it: https://open.spotify.com/track/0RckM34s52ifb27p4Lr2Fj?si=6RNNZPWyQVWe6JmWfORSCw
if you can open that. By Lambert (I have no idea who that is; this is just part of a playlist I listen to called FLOW by Olafur Arnalds)
Thank god, that's the one I listened to. Though if I'd had to put money on it, I'd have guessed that's the one you listened to too because I think I just might know you a *little* bit by now, Nia... 😉
I *have* been through a Moby stage, sorry to throw a wrench in the works 😂 A long time ago, though.
I won't hold it against you.
😅
i also am grateful for your sharing of support for your friend and the need and uplift of mutual aid--sending her good healing thoughts and donated. And i feel so seen by all these great autumn winter people! thank you for that too!
It's a Fall Appreciation Party up in here, heh.
Donation made! Mutual aid forever. ❤️
And cheers to the darker days. Glad I'm not the only one who finds unrelenting sun a challenge.
Thank you, Cayly!
Omg, a wasp UP YOUR NOSE?!? Whew. No no no. I am with you on fall, I feel like the year finally starts at Labor Day. Summer is the season of too hot and too many people and I prefer the rest. Fall is always the best weather, and of course it's the best time to travel almost everywhere in the US but it's also the best time to be here so you know. I love that time in the morning when I first get up. I rarely turn on lights in my house - there's enough light from the little lights that tell me such and such is still plugged in and operating anyway, even with blackout curtains. I love looking out at the stars. From my bedroom window I can see the milky way if I'm really really lucky but usually just some stars that remind me where it is. I love the time before sunrise, I can't wait to be back out in that again.
And you are correct, we are all holding hands and climbing.
On a day where the future portends sadness and loss for my family, your article was uplifting and reminded me we are one. I feel the hands holding mine on this climb. Thank you.
All best to you and yours, Mary Beth. 🙏🏽
aw thank you friend so much--i love all of this. especially the bloodthirsty dogs... yours in autumn-winter solidarity.
You know a thing or two about bloodthirsty dogs too, don't you?
Lovely piece of writing. I need fall; the heat is so difficult to enjoy. Cooler weather makes me so relieved, and autumnal fragrance is energizing.
Ah yes, all the glorious smells....
I too am a Pollyanna of Winter!
Loving this autumn equinox for us!
Hear, hear!
I live in a place where the seasons are still quite distinct (for now anyway). There seems to be a particular energy, an electricity in the air as Fall winds us down toward Wintering. Maybe created out of the friction of Summer’s green abundance grinding slowly dormant? I love it.
I made a small donation to Ando. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Jeremy. Lovely images.
Thanks Chris, your writing always makes me feel something. Joy, hope, anger, sadness, etc. and usually all in one article.
Thank you, Emily. It is good to hear from you!
This is so beautiful, Chris. It’s the start of the Jewish New Year, and in some ways it feels so off-beat -- the start of the year when everything is dying? -- but in other ways, yes, exactly this, we start anew when we don’t need to squint any more, we can open our eyes & reflect. (Also, donated -- I’ll send you an email.)
Thank you, Hannah. I got your email! And also, the Pagan New Year is November 1st, and I tend to feel more emotionally and spiritually connected to that as well. Here's to beginning in decline!