Tag Archives: fall

october weather

October has felt like a summer month with very little autumn yet. There is a general dusty draining of color – so far, not a lot of vibrancy. The temperatures are still well above normal. 

Head down in the busy season of calendar appointments and activities, planning and budgeting and the day to day work that builds a life, it’s easy to miss these things. So I am trying to remember to notice.

Sometimes I look out my bedroom window and notice the maple turning orange. And on my way out to my car after work, past the retaining pond, the crows watch me from their ragged line in the reeds. They talk amongst themselves and in their voices I hear the slate grey sky and the hard frost and the black bare branches. 

“Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me.” – Daniel Kahneman

pins of the week – september end edition

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve done a pin post so allow me to share what’s been catching my eye here in southeast Michigan in these final days of September.

It’s been hot and dry here for the past few weeks and I’m more than ready for this kind of weather. Although maybe not too quickly, because the kiddo’s senior pictures are scheduled for mid-to-late October and she and I are both on pins and needles hoping that the weather holds. We want cool temps, peak color, with no rainstorms to strip all the leaves. After that it can do what it will.

My knitting projects are even more scattered than usual. I haven’t finished anything in ages and while I’d like to keep going on something – ANYTHING – to have a finished object, I have to start two new projects. It’s time for me to start my annual contribution to the Mittens for Detroit charity. But even though I pinned the two ideas above (I thought the duck mittens would be really cute for children and I obviously love the stripy pair (and they’d be warm too), I won’t have time to do anything other than a basic pair. I also have to cast on for a baby hat for a work friend, whose wife is expecting and due around the holidays. I’ve waited too long here and am in a lot of knitting hot water.

I really like this outfit although I’d wear it with my Sambas. And I never understand how women can tuck sweaters in – even a half tuck. And it’s been too hot. But everything else I like.

I don’t know if my wild feminine has revealed itself, but I like the concept of putting the ‘people pleasing maiden’ to rest.

One of the major projects that Brandon and I have to tackle in my 1962 Colonial is a kitchen remodel, but thinking about what that will entail (especially with a teenager and three cats and working from home 2 days a week) usually makes me think “hey, this too-small, outdated, not-ideal kitchen is JUST FINE!” But the day is coming and when it does, I am GOING to have a wide windowsill for plants. (Not those little angel figurines, though.) I love plants and I have one cat (Emmett I am looking at you) who is a plant murderer and will chew anything that is lower than six feet off the ground or that he is able to climb to. So my little collection of Thanksgiving cacti, Pothos, Hoya, snake plants and Pilea peperomioides are scrunched up on the mantel and high up on shelves and in less than ideal spots for their growth and display. Someday I will have a nice wide kitchen windowsill and I will have a nice little collection of plants there to bask in the sunshine.

So that’s about it for this morning. I have to get out for a quick run and then I’m off to help the kiddo’s marching band at one of their competitions this afternoon (pray for them; it will be 80 today and blazing sun, in full uniforms. These kids are absolute troopers).

Until next time. xoxo

reflections on my recent return to trail running.

As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness descends on southeast Michigan, I am returning to an old love – trail running.

As a person with generalized anxiety, as I move through the golden woods, I find myself reflecting that my experience with trail running has a lot of parallels to my daily experience living life.

I have to go about it with a measure of control. If I approach it with too much abandon, there’s a good chance I’ll end up hurt.

I am constantly scanning several feet in front of me, looking for hidden dangers and obstacles.

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I am usually worried that if I take my eyes off the terrain, or get tired or lazy, that I’m going to take a nasty spill.

I meet all kinds of different souls on the trail. Some are friendly and want to exchange a moment. Some are wary, and some are baleful. It doesn’t matter. As long as they aren’t an escaped homicidal axe murderer, it’s all good.

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If I’m in the right frame of mind, I can get into a meditative flow state where nothing really matters except what is right in front of me, my feet on the trail, my breath in my ears, and the world moving past me.

This state never lasts as long as I would like it to.

Every now and then I see a glimpse of amazing pure beauty, and it takes my breath away.

I’ve learned that my pace doesn’t matter. I take as much time as I need to get through it. It’s not about the end result, it’s about the journey.