I spent some time in August getting the condo ready for the Fall months. I ordered new pillows. I purchased diamond art in Fall themes and individually placed each color one by one. This is something I enjoy doing while watching the news. (I find diamond art to be relaxing even though I don’t think that the tiny plastic pieces are environmentally wise.) I also got two coffee mugs that matched the pillows that I had ordered. I purchased reversible placemats. They have Halloween pumpkins on one side, and an orange all over design on the other. There you have it - my seasonal decorating. Yes, I will add natural items as well as a candle. However, my environment has now changed from summer to fall, and it feels good.

I love September’s crisp apples, honey, sunflowers, and wheat. I love baking fruit cobblers and reminded myself today to pick up some vanilla ice cream, while it’s on sale, to top hot cobblers. I also love hot spiced cider.

The scents and the colors of this month and next are certainly amazing. As I look ahead to October, it is much of the same. While, I am not a fan of Halloween, I sure do love seeing the pumpkins, the falling leaves and the sounds of excited and happy children.

What also feels good at the moment is that it is not in the 90 degree to over 100+ degree heat range. This week it is below 80 degrees. The lower temperatures create outstanding weather for walking. I have no idea what is ahead as I have experienced both earthquakes, and fires, in Northern California during the fall months. But at the moment, it feels like I can breathe, take a walk, look at the the trees as they change colors, and simply enjoy being exactly where I am.

How about you? How do you mark the change of seasons?

Perhaps these changes may be noticed by observing the physical landscape for clues such as the time the sun goes down each evening, the angles of light, what is growing or by observing leaves that are still green but will soon change colors. Sometimes subtle changes many announce the gradual arrival of one season as well as the departure of another.

Yesterday, I walked into a higher-end retail store. I observed stacks of Fall themed foods ready to entice customers. I quietly noticed baking dishes, plates, table linens and glassware. Each proclaimed a quickly arriving season. These objects spoke to me of gathering inside with others around a table, crisp weather, slow cooked meals, and delectable baked goods. These objects also spoke to me in colors of orange, brown and yellow. They elicited memories of the scents of pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, onions, potatoes and more.

Outside the store there were furniture samples of outdoor patio and deck furniture. These objects spoke to me of summer and gatherings outdoors. I could imagine sitting outside eating grilled food, and enjoying a cool lemonade. As the temperature outside was over 100 degrees today, the cool lemonade would have tasted especially wonderful.

It is significant to me that these summer furniture items were outside the store, while the fall themed items were inside.

In this moment, what season of your creative landscape is primarily exterior?

In this moment, what season of your creative landscape is primarily interior?

If your experience is of a season gradually transitioning from one season to another, what do you notice? How do the changes feel?

During this month I invite you to notice the cycles of the seasons in the places where you live fully, where you spend your days. What in these gradual movements invites you to appreciate your own creative landscape in this moment? What shifts and cycles, colors, scents and textures are part of your own personal creative landscape? What grounds you in this time and space?

During this month, many of my notes will reflect upon the creative landscape and a shift from summer with its warm sun to the cooler lights of autumn. Because I live in Northern California, the seasonal shifts are gradual ones. However, these may be vastly different where you live. Our experiences differ. That is a good thing.

Wishing you all good things as the seasons change.

I think we delight in our own personal blooms, but forget the work that it took to get there. And, we may grieve the loss of the blooms, without also holding the whole of the cycle as equally important. In the Northern Hemisphere our gardens in July are often in bloom. Together let’s note the colors, the textures, the forms and the way that these life forms fill space in such delightful ways. I also encourage us to look at the many things blooming around us as well as the things that aren’t at this time. Not because anything is wrong, but because it isn’t the season. I imagine in climates that are wintry during this time, a different kind of blooming may occur. This may be in anticipation of what will happen in a few weeks or months time. Or, this blooming may be other than the limits that my imagination imposes. Both may be true.

Last month I encouraged my readers to respond in this moment to a variety of inquiries. My purpose is, and was, to encourage immediacy, rather than remembering. While I hold that viewpoint, I am also encouraging a sense of what we each individually may be called to reflect upon through this month. It may be past. It may be future. I encourage exploration, inquiry, curiosity and even some adventure. Yes, even some adventure. I would love to read your thoughts. I would also love to read about your own creative landscapes as you understand them to be, and as you envision them past and future.

I hope that your envisioning includes a sense of wonder, and a sense of honoring. I am thinking specifically of the earth beneath our feet. I personally love that cameras can now record birds’ nesting, laying eggs, and observe new life. I love that cameras can record the movement of animals on a trail. I also wonder if our imaginations can delight in the mostly unwitnessed movements, communications, and pathways that are part of our creative landscapes in this world. We can choose to observe, to be a witness. I believe a creative landscape includes our personal history, but is not limited to it. It is a call to depth, awareness, wonder, and respect during this quickly changing season, this blooming season.

So, what can you expect this month on my Substack. Hmmmm?

• I will feature many images of blooms. These majority of these images are taken with my cell phone camera, and are taken during visits to a local garden center. Aren’t they beautiful?

• I will be adding some quotations, writing prompts, and affirmations.

• I will continue a focus on sensory awareness, and also encourage us to put our phones down in order to imply see what is happening in this moment.

• I will continue to encourage a respectful witnessing of our individual creative landscapes as well as the ways in which these landscapes are held within varied contexts and ecosystems.

Welcome to July!

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At one point in my life I was rather obsessed with ascending. If there was a metaphorical mountain top to climb, I was trying to find a way up. It wasn’t so much ambition, rather an eagerness to learn and to know. However, I found it can be painful to have one’s wings burned. This painful, yet common, experience has happened to me more than once. I have found that there is also gratitude in having been privileged to attempt even if what I sought was unattainable in the form that I wished it to be.

I found myself repeatedly drawn to communities where this phenomenon was common. Some seemingly successful met their challenges, some seemingly soared, and others did their best. What was the truth of my observations of others? It of course was filtered through my perspective which sometimes included envy at others’ seeming ease of achieving what I most desired.

It has been important to me to step back and love the twists and turns, the missteps and to see them mirrored in the natural world around me. It is important for me to see depth as well as mountain tops. It has been important for me to see this as the living into my creative landscape. It is important for me to acknowledge the grace in it.

I remember some years ago going to Yosemite - a place that I dearly love. While walking a path near Yosemite Falls, I realized that I no longer had the physical capacity to climb the trails to the top of any of the geologic wonders around me. I remember putting my both of my hands on the rocks beside me, and mentally saying to the rock that “I will never climb you”, meaning that I will never master this terrain. It isn’t a matter of training, or skill building. It was a matter of respect for limitation and humanness. There is peace in that. There is grace in that. It isn’t even a question of perfection and or imperfection, it just is.

I welcome fellow writers and those who experience the world similarly.

Write about it, I am reading.

If you wish to collaborate, I am open to that possibility.

What are some positive memories of this month for you?

On this first day of the new month, I have gone to the medical center for a Covid booster. I also looked around a craft store and came home with a diamond art project for Fall. The landladies had a new washing machine delivered so there will be fewer trips to the laundromat. My daughter reported in with her grades from the last semester - all A’s. I am so pleased. Not a bad way to begin a month.

What might you expect for A Creative Landscape this month? My writing will be encouraging us to reflect upon our own individual creative landscapes in the present moment. We will not focusing on either past, or future, rather now. I will be encouraging connecting with our senses. So, the phrase, “In this moment…” will be one that you will see often. I will be encouraging your responses to be centered in the present moment as well. Yes, I will read them when I read them, but I will be reading them in my then present moment. This will allow for myself to center and savor with grace and immediacy which is connected both to June and the season.

The book for the month is The Fifth Season by Mark Nepo. If you are reading this book as well, and wish to discuss it, please message me. By the way, the author does have his own Substack. Please follow him or subscribe as you will.

Welcome to June!

With much love,

Meghan

Did you have any pleasant surprises from the natural world today?

What do I do with your reading suggestions?

I go onto my library’s website and see if the suggested books are available. If so, I put them on my ever growing hold list. It what seems a very short time, I receive an e-mail from the library advising me that the book is available on the hold shelf. I go pick the book up and almost always throughly enjoy the book. So, thank you SO much for your suggestions.

Today, I will offer a suggestion of my own. If you are interested in creativity, aging, journal writing and seasons it is possible that you may love Mark Nepo’s latest book, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life. His writing gives words to much I have been exploring and in my gut knowing. I wonder if it might be the same for you. If you are interested in reading this together with me as A Creative Landscape book group selection - please let me know.

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Many thanks to everyone who has subscribed, has liked posts and commented. I have so needed a sense of my writing being held within a community of writers. I wish you all the best with your own voice, your own style, and your own showing up again and again.

When you remember your graduations, what is a happy memory that you have carried with you? In what way is this experience part of your creative landscape today?

What is my business was getting the clothes clean before the holiday weekend. I am no stranger to using a laundromat. Through the years, I have used them often.

I recently took my daughter to use a laundromat nearer to where she lives as the new dryer in her co-op wasn’t functioning. She reviewed laundromats on-line, locations near her, before deciding on one. I picked her up in my car. She loaded in her clothes bag and off went. Once we got there, she did the laundry while I read. This was a pleasant switch for me. It wasn’t my laundry, or my task.

I did take a chance to look around though. The strip-mall laundromat appeared to be managed by two women both of whom were quite busy. They were friendly but also able to assist when we had questions. There were coloring pages for children, a unwatched video blasting, machines that appeared to be maintained, snacks for sale, adequate space, air conditioning and a clean bathroom. Other than the video’s noise, this location would do just fine.

Of course, I returned there today. I was greeted as though they remembered me. Once again the women behind the counter were very busy, but also helpful. As I looked around to see who was using the machines, I saw mostly women. Most of them appeared to be culturally different from me, and the cultures were diverse. Some appeared to be physically strong, but not all. I did not see children. A different video was loudly playing. What amazed me was the quiet focus everyone had on getting the job done - load after load of laundry - each load was washed, dried and neatly folded.

I left with clean clothes. I feel set for the weekend. I also left with a respect for this ordinary, but extremely necessary task. I am assuming that in a few weeks, I will not be heading off to this laundromat. Rather, I will be putting in a load as needed from the comfort of my residence. However, I imagine most of these women will have been there more than once, caring for their families by keeping their families’ clothes washed, dried and ready for use.

The first handwritten note note defines the steps that I need to take to put up a notice in a local pet store as I am hoping to earn a bit of extra income by cat sitting during the summer. I have already checked to see if there is a bulletin board at the pet store and have gotten permission to post there. Other steps are to write the advertisement. Then, to print it out at the local library’s printer. Then, to post the advertisement at the pet store. Finally also to communicate my availability as a “cat sitter” to friends in the area. That should do it. Right?

The second is practical as well. I wish to keep my step count higher during the summer months when the heat is brutal here. So, how might I do that? Get up earlier when it is cooler and do a morning walk is one option. Choosing to walk in an air conditioned mall during the afternoon is another option. Slow walking in the air conditioned library might work as well.

Wish me luck!

What is part of your blessed ordinary? How do you acknowledge it with gratitude?

For myself, I am noting eagerness, some frustration, a need to monitor boundaries and a desire to move more deeply into this creative present. I am reminding myself to breathe and to take one step at a time. I already have what I need.

As an introvert, my natural environment is one of quiet, of sunrises and sunsets, bird songs, trees and open spaces. I have lived in downtown urban settings and worked in concrete and glass high-rises. However, these are not my preference.