A Seasonal Notebook | Autumn 2024

As we approach each new season, we do so with expectation and hope. I invite you to open the pages of my seasonal notebook, a place to journey together, and to reconnect with the rhythms of nature.

As we approach each new season, we do so with expectation, with hope; sometimes with excitement, sometimes with trepidation. The cycle of the seasons offers us a deep and mindful way of rooting our own seasons of life within the reassurance and continuity of the natural world. Each season, I invite you to open the pages of my seasonal notebook, a place to reflect, to set intentions, and above all, to reconnect with the rhythms of nature. Together we will journey through the seasons, learning from the past, and embracing each one in a way which can offer us with a firmer foundation for the present.

The deep and rich browns, reds, and oranges embrace us, as nature’s earthy, autumnal palette leads us cosily towards winter. Suddenly, the bright lights of summer are swept away, the vibrant colours of the roses fading to a seasonal slumber. For many, autumn is their favourite season, and it’s easy to see why. With it, autumn brings an opportunity to reflect and re-evaluate, to think about those things which matter most, those which serve us where we are in our own life season. With that comes a chance to shed those things which no longer serve us, just as the trees outside give up their leaves in hopeful expectation of new growth and rebirth later on. But autumn can be stormy, with fierce depressions whirling across the country, whipping up the delicate, paper-thin leaves which scatter their path.

As we emerge from summer into autumn, how do you feel?

A Seasonal Notebook is a post to return to throughout the season of autumn, just as we might turn back to a favourite page in our journal. It’s an opportunity to reflect, to learn, and to embrace all that the season of autumn offers us. Our modern world, with its quest for speed and often intense superficiality, challenges those of us who crave a slower and simpler life. But we can look to the natural world for reassurance, for support in cradling us on life’s journey, for none of us know when those storms might come. Nature, with its continuous cycle of renewal, offers us a grounding in something far greater than the fleeting changes of modern life.

Whether you’re reading this at the start of autumn, at the end, or maybe even during the seasons of autumn in the years to come, you are so welcome. It is such a privilege to share this seasonal journey with you.

In this season’s notebook, you can find:

• Reflecting on autumn with seasonal journalling prompts

• An exploration of seasonal autumn foods with suggested recipes to enjoy

• Reflections on simple autumn seasons in the past

• Suggestions for savouring the simple of moments of autumn

• An autumnal playlist through which to enjoy the season in song and sound, with listening guide