Seasonal thoughts, reflections, activities, and other chat about nature.
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What are seasonal thoughts?
I've been doing seasonal reflection and journaling for several years now. I'm still trying to figure out what it really means and what it amounts to, other than learning more about how weather works, how the climate changes, and observing how that seems to impact the people around me. Other than finding a timeline to document my life that works with my pace, is there any real significance to seasonal observations?
I would say yes. I mean, that's part of why I keep doing this! but if you take each observation by itself it's just a little love note. it's a noticing, a letter to my future self about this moment. it's rarely a beautiful, meaningful piece of literature. if you were to read all of my thoughts over the months, including whatever zine or other artifact comes out of it, maybe it would be a little more comprehensive and meaningful. I don't know, I guess I've never really taken that approach to it. maybe it wouldn't. maybe it would be a sparse pile of random ideas and thoughts only tied together by the fact that I am keeping them in seasonal buckets.
but what are seasonal thoughts? What does it mean to be an observer of seasons?
it means you are an observer of the changing of time. it means you recognize minor transitions as much as the major ones. it means that you see a thread through the year that's based on the changing of the leaves. we often associate fall with leaves changing but it happens all year. it means you take yourself out of those strict seasonal definitions, usually based on weather or natural events, and realize that a lot of that stuff happens cross-season. when you say that it's a beautiful spring day in winter, you're actually just experiencing a beautiful winter day, and mentally associating it with spring.
keeping seasonal thoughts is entirely about noticing and then writing it down. it doesn't have to be significant, it could be the smallest thing in the world. but that's all it is! it is not about creating beautiful, descriptive, poetic posts about a single leaf or the first snowflake that you saw. it's about noticing, and for me, it's also about sharing.
since beginning this method of structuring my creative time, I have learned a lot about science, seasons in my local area and how they differ from seasons in other parts of the US or around the world, seasonal produce, and things that make each season special (even the hot ones). I've developed several rituals, found some of my favorite seasonal candle scents, and learned how to measure my focus and attention overall, rather than getting stuck in the daily details.
it's not just about posting about weather or holidays, it's also about noticing energy levels and patterns over time.
it's been quite a fruitful construct for me to exist in these seasonal views of my life and the world. as a time blind person, it's really easy to lose track of things week to week, but this gives me the power to reign it in and keep up with my life at a pace that makes sense to me.
I don't know where it goes and I doubt that an online journal coupled with a seasonal zine is the best possible way to share my thoughts and the things I make in this reflection... but I'm interested in sticking around and seeing how it continues to evolve.