Everything Stays the Same and Yet Everything Changes

In a world that is constantly changing and doing nothing new all at the same time - seasons bring us a promise for tomorrow while still giving us something to love about today. Fall is my favorite season - I simply love how everything turns quiet from the bustle of summer. How the mornings are darker later and night comes faster. I love how snuggling up with a blanket and a book to disappear into an adventure or another world are perfectly respectable when it’s dark outside. And it reminds me of habits others had that we have left behind. I read somewhere that in the Middle Ages people would go to sleep when the sun went down and then wake up after four hours or so stay up for a couple hours then go back to sleep for a few more hours till the sun came up. It seems perfectly reasonable in the fall and early parts of winter though there is so little dark where I live in the summer I fear I wouldn’t get enough sleep. I love being up when it’s dark but like to sleep first. Staying up all night bothers me for some reason. Maybe I’m traumatized from my truck driving days but I really think I’ve always been like that. It just feels weird to me. Rather surreal. Living in the country I think we feel seasons more closely. The rhythm of days and months and years. Every season brings new “jobs” and new reasons to celebrate. In the fall everything is slowing down and getting ready for the big sleep - all tucked into a blanket of snow. And then snow itself has an energy of its own. It has a color or should I say a filter that makes everything feel new and different. The snow sucks up all the sound - so it’s quiet in a way it never is in the other seasons. The first snowfall with those big fat flakes and a fire burning in the fireplace - yeah - magical. Places I visit in the spring and summer look totally new when covered in snow. Or how in the spring we have pogonip here - which is a kind of fog that comes with ice - a word my youngest daughter taught me during her homeschooling days. We had all the fun laughing about it as we realized that it was totally a thing where we live. There is another word that we learned that applies in the spring it’s “apricity” It’s when you’re soaking up the warmth of the sun though it’s still cold out. That feeling when you wander into a hot spot on a cold day. We’ve just moved into daylight saving time - where I feel we should get that daylight back we saved from summer or stop pretending that it’s even possible. The fall change isn’t so bad - but in the spring it drives me crazy (ier). Yep, the seasons come and go one day at a time. If this one was challenging the sun will come up again tomorrow and pull us closer to the next month and season. I love that about life… everything stays the same and yet everything changes.How about you - what’s your favorite season? Do you have one? 🌱 Use what you’ve got. Grow what you can. Make a life you love. Get full access to Hobo Homesteading at hobohomesteading.substack.com/subscribe