It’s really beginning to feel like fall all of a sudden around here. The beach fog rolls in, in the morning, it’s much cooler throughout the day than it’s been, it’s getting darker earlier and I’m just feeling that shift in season. Today I spent the day cleaning house, getting out some fallish items, putting away some of the bright, light summer colors and replacing them with richer, deeper tones. I dusted, I vacuumed, I lit candles throughout the house, all while wearing my first pair of socks for the season. This to me was soulful. I find preparing for the new season something peaceful and welcoming to the soul.

This past week I’ve been

reading : this that I got in the mail this week. Loved this piece on books. And joined an online book club where we will be discussing the first chapter of this parenting book tomorrow.

moving; practicing my physical therapy/Pilates exercises every day. Ellie thinks I’m being silly and enjoys crawling all over me while I do this.

writing: I’ve been wanting to try this for a while now and finally after reading this post, I signed up. I’m hoping it will enhance my soulful journey and help me develop and strengthen my creative writing. I’m freaking out about it just a little bit.

meditating: this has still been difficult for me to do every day, but this week I’ve been taking daily walks with Ellie and sometimes when (if) she falls asleep, I work on listening and concentrating on my breath as I walk and shut out the rest of the world. Not quite the meditation practice I had in mind when I started this thing, but hey, I’m a Mama and I guess you could call it my Mama Meditations.

I’ll leave you with a poem, for, tonight is the harvest moon!

RIDING ON THE HARVEST MOON by Annette Bromley 

 The days are growing shorter

and cold weather is coming soon

as autumn arrives in gala dress

riding on the harvest moon.

The harvest moon, pale amber orb

in the late September sky

smiles down on a bountiful earth

and bids summertime good-bye.

The oaks all wear carnelian crowns

in a forest gowned red and gold

where crickets chant by the moonlight

Fields and orchards yield plenty now,

days still warmed by a gentler sun;

Now is the time to gather in

for soon ice and snow will come

and sooner will be the days of sticks,

fields, once gold, soon turn to dun.

Wild flocks are singing their farewells.

We’ll soon hear the last song of the loon.

The geese will soon be flying south

across the harvest moon.

It is the season of the Harvest Moon,

that pale amber orb of light

smiling down on a bountiful earth

on these late September nights.

Now is the time to gather in.

The fields and forest are ripe

And abundant now for harvest;

The apples are red, the pumpkins gold

And the harvest moon is in the sky

And the nights are growing cold.

The days are growing shorter.

Winter’s night is coming soon.

Autumn has come in gala dress

riding on the harvest moon…

And she is chanting out her warning

upon the autumn breeze

as she twirls and dances for awhile

among the falling autumn leaves.