The seasons here follow such a different rhythm than what I grew up with—the near-even three months with each season. I’m surprised to find it bothers me less than it used to—maybe I’ve finally given up my stubborn resistance to the latitude and I’ve adapted to the change of seasons here— the short and early fall, springs that move from melt to summer within a week. It used to feel so ominous when people would say out loud that fall had begun in late July. I would internally scream no, not yet, not yet, please let us still have a few more weeks.
"Staying in place, we create and map interior wilds and the wilds of what is around us. Routines, place, and the quiet of solitude, are what break open infinity, an opening into circular time. They allow us to recognize and know our own inseparable nature from the seasons, the trees, the birds at our window, the tides of a wine-dark sea."
What a great way to end this fantastic essay, because that very thought is what was building in my mind. I've had to relent and put an AC unit in my window here in the room I work in at home (if I want to get any afternoon work done at all in the summer heat), and its disruption to my "world" is significant. There are entire universes accessible to me from this spot, and the familiar paths I walk in my wider physical world are always new to me.
This was beautifully written on a topic that I strongly resonate with. “Stasis” has indeed been unfairly regarded as a sense reluctance to explore new things. I suspect this misconception is in part driven by the cult of productivity and busyness, to keep moving regardless of how counterintuitive this is.
"Staying in place, we create and map interior wilds and the wilds of what is around us. Routines, place, and the quiet of solitude, are what break open infinity, an opening into circular time. They allow us to recognize and know our own inseparable nature from the seasons, the trees, the birds at our window, the tides of a wine-dark sea."
What a great way to end this fantastic essay, because that very thought is what was building in my mind. I've had to relent and put an AC unit in my window here in the room I work in at home (if I want to get any afternoon work done at all in the summer heat), and its disruption to my "world" is significant. There are entire universes accessible to me from this spot, and the familiar paths I walk in my wider physical world are always new to me.
This was beautifully written on a topic that I strongly resonate with. “Stasis” has indeed been unfairly regarded as a sense reluctance to explore new things. I suspect this misconception is in part driven by the cult of productivity and busyness, to keep moving regardless of how counterintuitive this is.