Three Glimmers: August

A snapshot of the small, joyful moments in this month of transition.

Welcome to The Autumn Chronicles, a place to shine a light on all the wonder around us as we navigate the seasons. I hope these writings allow you to sit quietly with a cup of something warm and comforting and take a few moments for yourself away from the rush and hurry. If you would like to make sure you get all newsletters directly to your inbox, please subscribe below. Thank you for being here.

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August has been full. Work has been hectic, life and family events have collided and I am starting to feel the pull of autumn - that need for slowness, cosiness and ease. My Instagram feed has taken to almost exclusively showing me reels of autumn colours in New England and I have found myself daydreaming of all the trips I want to take, all the small towns I want to visit and all the baked goods I want to sample. I have begun to notice the slight chill in the air first thing in the morning and the contracting of days as the sun rises later and sets earlier.

I always find that I am more tired at this time of the year; perhaps because warmer nights mean I’m not sleeping as deeply but also because I am ready for replenishment. I am ready to live intentionally and deliberately, to prioritise the things that fill me up, rather than the things that deplete me. This is the time where I want to be prioritising little acts of self care and spending quality time with loved ones. After a year of staycations, driven mostly by a desire to fly less and embrace the possibility of everything on offer more locally, I am really looking forward to a change of scenery - and leaving the country! - at the end of the month.

As we begin to transition away from summer and towards the coming of a new season, here are three things that have been glimmers for me recently.

Fading Beauty

All photos © The Autumn Chronicles

My garden is beginning to show the first whispers of the impending changes and I have contradictory feelings about it. For all that I don’t love the heat of summer, I am desperately sad at the thought that the vivid colours and the golden, radiant light are fading. On the other hand, I am more than ready to discover myself again in the cooler temperatures and the burnished mineral shades of autumn. For now, I am taking the time to find beauty where it languishes and focusing on being present in the moment, enjoying what remains of the summer with the thrill and expectation of all that is to come.

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Snapshots

I know I’ve said this before but walking around London taking photos is one of my favourite things to do. There is always something to photograph in a city where the contrast between ancient and modern is ever-present. I don’t pretend to be an expert photographer and I have nothing more sophisticated than an iPhone to use but I am always on the lookout for a moment to capture. The best advice I was ever given was that the best view can quite often be behind you and I took this photo on the way back to Liverpool Street after lunch in Hoxton with some of my favourite people. I love how the skyscrapers seem to nestle in the centre of the shot and how the sepia-toned facades of the older buildings compete for focus with the towering, glistening steel and glass of the modern-day city. A contemporary, photographic parable for the nature of living in a capital city perhaps, where the old and the new, tradition and progress are in constant tension.

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Poetry on Prescription

The tumultuous clamour of Oxford Street is not usually where I choose to spend my time but the Poetry Pharmacy had been on my ‘to visit’ list for a while. I would be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about poetry but, on a rare Thursday off work, I spent a wonderful hour there - nosing through all the prescription vials, leafing through the books I wish I had enough time to read and taking a moment to sit and enjoy a cup of fresh mint tea in the lovely cafe with its big picture windows looking out onto the street below. Each tray of tea is served with a fragment of a poem and, as someone who is on the cusp of a milestone birthday early next year and who is feeling that she’s not quite where she thought she would be at that point in her life, the one that was randomly assigned to me was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment:

“sometimes it is necessary / to re-teach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower / and re-tell it in words and in touch / it is lovely, until it flowers again from within, of self blessing” - Galway Kinnell

I purchased two prescriptions that now live on my writing desk: one for Joy and one to Slow Down - both elements that contribute to happiness and contentment and things that I am working hard to ensure I bring into my every day. I also bought a gorgeous, navy blue, cloth-bound edition of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Bashō. As well as being an attractive addition to my bookshelf, it will, I hope, serve as an entry point into a deeper understanding of and appreciation for haiku and everything it shows us about the beauty of the natural world.

I left feeling restored. That single hour in a small store on the first floor of a retail space in one of the busiest streets in London had given me the replenishment I had been craving. As the nights draw in and the autumn wind begins to susurrate through leaves that are preparing to fall, I am ready for this next chapter of the year and all the wonder still to come.

I’d love to know: what have your glimmers been this month?

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