The Seasons of a Day

Another cause for awe

Photo by Mehmet Ali Turan on Unsplash

I wrote last week of walking and raindrops. Yes. That I did.

It’s Tuesday and it is still raining off and on here—we here in paradise, our corner of the Great Pacific Northwest, north of Mt. Tahoma and adjacent to the Salish Sea, just south of the border we share with our neighbors to the North (our Canadian siblings)…

Btw, funny how there is no national uproar about the immigrant border crossings at THIS border. Maybe that’s because “they” look too much like “us.” Regardless, we’ve forgotten we’re all siblings, no matter which border you choose to cross.

Side note to this side note: when I’ve crossed the border into British Columbia, from the famed Peace Arch on our side in Blaine, Washington, the Canadian Border Agents have always seemed more welcoming and friendlier than their American counterparts a mere few feet away. Interesting that, eh? Wonder what that says about Canadians? Wonder what that says about us?

Take a CLOSE look at the inscription at the top of the Peace Arch. They got THAT right! And it does not matter which border you’re referring to. We’ve forgotten that.

(okay, back to us here in paradise)

…we don’t correct people when they say “Seattle? It rains there all the time, right?”

“Yeah,” we say. Which is GPNW code for “please don’t move here. There’s already too many of us here. If you have that perspective and have to ask the question, you can visit, but leave soon thereafter. This is OUR paradise.” But if you know of the beauty that exists here, and know our real history, climatically, with rain, and our relationship to rain, then you’d be invited to stay because we believe you inherently know how to take care of a place—how to honor and hold sacred what is this Earth and our temporary incarnations upon it, while also understanding the long-term impact upon the Earth from the choices we make every single day.

But back to my point.

I said it was Tuesday of this past week, and it was still raining. Truth of the matter is that we were having one of those glorious days where we experience multiple seasons within the span of a single day.

I walked outside just after dawn to walk among our trees, look at the garden, and mist the mushrooms I’m cultivating (cuz, yes I am—of the Lion’s Mane and Oyster varieties in case you were wondering, and you probably were), and the quiet morning air had the chill of a fall day. But there was a knowing that the air would warm later, and it did.

In that later, the sun came out in its brilliance—the overcast skies of the night clearing pathways for the rays that illuminated all the surfaces they landed upon as if the surfaces themselves were glowing on their own. Then later still, and still before noon, it rained again—but while the sun was shining brilliantly. If you haven’t experienced this rather rare phenomenon, you might want to consider visiting our unique corner of the universe especially in late summer or early fall. It’s breathtaking. (But remember it rains ALL. THE. TIME. HERE.)

Though it’s still projected to be warmer here later this week, with no further rain forecasted for the short term, I think we’ve turned that summer corner heading into the time of the official start of fall—the autumnal equinox.

Science Trivia test time—do you know the date, roughly, of the autumnal equinox? Hint, it falls roughly at the same time every year. Bonus questions: do you know why that is so? And could you explain what “equinox” actually means to a kindergarten student?

(Remember, you’re currently reading from a former science teacher here. You can take the teacher out of teaching but you can’t take the teaching out of the teacher!)

Test over.

Past noon on this Tuesday, a breeze picked up and it became fully overcast again. Just as it should.

A day in the life of a typical fall weather day in the Great Pacific Northwest is an apt metaphor for all life. There is Alchemy to be found here, as we overlay a story that suits us upon the reality that is the innate perfection of a perfect day. Every day is perfect—because it is exactly as it is; it cannot, and is not, happening any other way. So it must be, by definition, perfect. But that doesn’t keep us from creating a story about our relationship to it.

And we create all those stories ourselves. No one else gives them to us, not our spouse, not our pets, not our neighbors or teachers or priests or rabbis or political leaders or friends or perceived enemies. The story you live is the story you write within the confines of your mind and heart. Only you can answer if that story is a love story, a happy story, a sad story, a romantic story, a thriller, or a horror story. Or all of the above. Sometimes I can tell how you live your story by how you are, and who you are, on the outside—especially in how you treat others; especially in how you treat kids. But I never have access to the full story that is you. And it is that that explains the why of you.

Such is what it means to be human.

Unless you take the time to share your story with me—and if or when you do, I pray you share with me it all. Then, I’ll honor you by bowing down before you for having lived a unique life I never could have imagined for you. And you were the only one in all of humanity who could have lived it. Because you are.

Within the span of 12 hours, the brilliance and beauty of weather. All that was needed…to complete the seasons…

…was snow. But that’ll come soon enough.

I LOVE that the season is turning. Fall in the GPNW is incredibly and awe-inspiringly beautiful. That’s the story it tells. There should be no other interpretation.

Even as summer returned later in the day:

And when the wind calms, balloons can show themselves once again in their full blue beauty too—kept reminders of a day we began an anticipation. How long we keep them, at least right there, out “in the weather,” where they were intentionally placed, will depend upon, well, the weather. Until then, we fly them proudly. And we wait. When weather dictates, they’ll get saved differently for later.

And likely for all time.

this morning i paused to listen to the rain

gently falling outside my open window
and grew to appreciate each drop
with deep gratitude.

i imagined…
the soil saying thank you
the seed saying thank you
the bulb saying thank you
the cedar saying thank you
the bird saying thank you
the frog and salamander saying thank you
the worm saying thank you
(just not so much, please)

then me, 
too,
saying thank you.
(though that not imagined)

and amidst all that gratitude,
as the rain continued its gentle purpose,
hearing a soft

“you’re welcome.” 

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Live, Laugh, and Love—with Clear Eyes and Full Hearts,

Always and Ubuntu,

~ kert

And with Ahimsa!

🙏🏼

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And because rainy days give me full, guilt-free permission to READ, an update on an important part of my Alchemy: my reading life.

• Just finished this by Ruth Ozeki: The Book of Form and Emptiness—though fiction, it is a raw and honest look at mental illness, death and grief, love, compassion, parenthood, friendship, and redemption. We can never know the full depth of another person’s human journey. Ozeki’s acknowledgment section in the back, something that I imagine most readers gloss quickly past, is essential and enlightening in and of itself. Highly recommend—4.5 stars.

Ozeki, Ruth. The Book of Form and Emptiness. (Penguin Books, 2022)

• Because I knew my wife was a fan of the author Kristin Hannah, I thought she might enjoy “The Women,” a story of service in the Vietnam war from the perspective we never, ever hear about—from the heroic nurses who cared for the fallen soldiers in the midst of the chaos. It got high reviews—my wife LOVED it and almost finished it in one sitting! So, I’m reading it now!

Hannah, Kristin. The Women. (St. Martin’s Press, 2024)

• Among the memoirs and biographies I own, an important sub-genre in that category is presidential biography. I’m a student of leadership and our presidents provide rich glimpses of leadership within the context of the world they lived in. I have books on Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and one on Trump’s first year in the White House (written by Bob Woodward). I consider it one of my responsibilities as a citizen to learn more about the people who devoted portions of their lives to public service. In that vein, I had known of Kamala Harris for a while now—she made news and influenced policy while she was the AG in California especially in the area of childhood trauma. I’m not gonna toot my own horn, but when she ran for the Senate, I believed I was looking at our country’s first woman president. I believe that more than ever now—the times have finally caught up with her. So, I need to learn more about her. Just picked her memoir up and it’s at the top of my TBR stack:

Harris, Kamala. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. (Penguin Books, 2020)

• I tend to always have going a book (or more) on spiritual matters—not religion, but Spirit, Soul, Being, Zen, Mysticism, Awareness, Consciousness, Indigenous Wisdom, etc. I’m currently reading Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, a book whose reference kept surfacing in my life; and I’m rereading Walking Each Other Home as part of my morning devotionals—in conjunction with a daily lesson from A Course In Miracles. And I finally received a book that had been back-ordered for almost two months now—kinda unheard of in this day and age of “same day delivery.” That book is called Being You by Anil Seth. Seems I’m always trying to learn more about being me!

Chögyam Trungpa. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. (Shambhala Classics, 2002)

Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush. Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying. (Sounds True, 2022)

A Course In Miracles. (Foundation For Inner Peace, 2008)

Seth, Anil. Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. (Dutton Publishing, 2021)

(Note: linked books send you to my affiliate page on Bookshop.org. I’m moving further away from The Borg—ie, Amazon (where resistance, as I’m learning, isn’t quite yet futile!) Bookshop.org champions independent booksellers and gifts to them portions of profits to promote their patronage.) Whenever you can, please, buy local; buy from family-owned small businesses; and when it comes to food, buy organic and as much plant-based as you can.

If you are so inspired, share in the comments the book(s) you are currently reading!

Mine. What there is of it anyway.