Savor your abundance this fall

by Sara Barry | Sep 22, 2014 | fall, finding time, Uncategorized, writing

It’s the last day of summer, but I’ve already embraced fall.

We’re digging potatoes, stacking wood, crunching apples.

My garden is still putting out kale and chard, beans and herbs, zinnias and cosmos.

I sauté deep green kale and pair it with bright orange squash.  I simmer big pots of soup and chili, bake pork and apple pie, fill up the freezer.

I notice the beauty, the color, how much we have.

I invite you to notice the beauty and fullness in your life, harvest your own ideas, preserve your memories, and savor your own abundance. I invite you to make time to think, space to write.

The school bus rumbles down our street, squeals to a stop, bright yellow against a deep blue sky. Watching my big girl climb the high steps I remember holding her—then holding her back—as we watched our friends get on the bus, back when the bus was a break in a long morning.

I collect that memory, sit with it, gather the details, write it.

***

Saturday orange-red globes and dusky cherry tomatoes spilled over my friends counter. I set down a bag of peppers, chunky fir green poblanos, narrow yellow bananas, mid-green bells. We chopped and simmered, moving easily around each other in the comfort of old friends.

It is the last of our summer canning. Apple sauce yes, but that’s fall. Green tomatoes maybe as frost threatens. I’ve step out at night with the dog and smelled the cold already. When I get out of bed for my early morning writing, I pull on a sweater, slide into slippers.

Sunday was sticky and warm days are in the forecast for this week—summer hanging on, but the crispness of the days before, the days to come, it energizes me. I’m running more regularly and settling back into a better writing routine after a lack of summer schedule.

I am more motivated to do. But I take time still to sit outside writing, watching, reading, letting go of the weeds in the garden, letting go of my lists.

Later when my girls are in bed . . .
Tomorrow morning before they are up . . .
In the car after preschool drop off before I start work . . .

I’ll write.

I’ll describe this late summer day, the quiet in the house, the steady buzz of bees in the carpet of alyssum around the kale. I’ll shake off a morning meltdown or shift back my to my own kindergarten days, little snippets—red shoes, a yellow record, a batik project outside. I’ll start with the sensory details of making salsa and see where it takes me.

Take the time to write, to explore your ideas and memories, tap into creativity.

It’s Monday. Lunches to pack, school drop off, call with a client, meet the bus.
It’s Monday, and I’m taking time to write, creating a pocket of calm, holding space for myself.

I’m noticing my world in all its messy glory.

I’m capturing bits of today and harvesting memories, palpable, and sometimes as elusive as the potatoes I need to finish digging up.

I’m preserving the moments in words, filling notebooks as I fill my canning cabinet.

And I’m slowing down, savoring it all—even the chaos of a Monday morning.

You can too.

Take time for yourself. Notice your world. Write it. Join me and embrace your own abundance.