Living in Alignment with the Seasons
Your Home as a Seasonal Sanctuary
There is something wonderful about living in rhythm with the seasons. Each season feels different in our bodies. There is a distinct rhythm in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter seasons. We can see real beauty when we gaze out the window at the changing light, the ebb and flow in the cycle of death, birth and renewal. It is there, just outside the window, this inherent wisdom as the year unfolds.
“Cheers to Spring; for life; for a growing soul.”
As I meet each year in my own life, I am more conscious of this. I find each season gives me its own particular gifts. When we begin to live our lives in relationship and harmony with the world outside, we are enriched. The daily rhythm of our lives changes, and thereby, our relationship with our inner world and bodies changes, too.
As we are on the threshold of Spring and a new year, let us reflect on how our homes and the rhythm of our daily lives might begin to become more harmonious with this Spring season. You can think about this as you meet each season as the year unfolds.
What might this coming Spring season look like in your home and in the rhythm of your day-to-day life?
Finding more in harmony with the seasons helps us remain in balance with ourselves, which can give a sense of comfort, support and nourishment.
Spring and a New Rhythm to our Day
With Spring comes whispers of new beginnings. It is a liminal threshold time in the season of our lives. It is a time when the ground gently starts to soften. The winter season is a time of incubation. The seeds held in the darkness, in the ground in winter, are now making their way towards the light, through the earth, that is now beginning to soften and thaw.
As Spring approaches, we begin to see the signs of new life returning all around us. It is still early, yet there is a sense of the season turning. The snowdrops will gently raise their head. Soon, we will see the newborn lambs in the fields with their mothers. The daffodils in the fields will grow in abundance. We can look forward to new life returning and the days lengthening once more.
How can we align ourselves and our homes more with this season?
Putting Oneself in the Way of Beauty
Mornings
Mornings are when nature slowly starts to awaken. In Spring, we see this in the garden. There is a new smell in the air from the earth. The air has a freshness, a real sense of new hope and renewal.
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
I always love coming into my kitchen in the mornings and seeing the Spring light. I love to have a vase of daffodils there waiting for me. They are such friendly flowers. They also remind me of my childhood at my grandmother's house. She loved daffodils, and I loved picking them so she could put them in a vase on her table. Every time I see them now, I invariably think of her. So, consider bringing that beautiful yellow colour into your kitchen as a friendly greeting to yourself in the morning.
Opening the windows or doors in the morning is beautiful to bring in the fresh, crisp spring air. Even if only for five minutes, it brings a sense of crispness into your home. It is not a coincidence when people describe having a ‘spring clean’. There is an energy that returns with a fresh start in the springtime.
Clearing space, making space, and decorating your home with fresh flowers is a lovely practice as you meet the day and this new season. Perhaps you might like to light a candle with a different scent than the one you lit in winter. Notice the difference.
Having your coffee, tea or herbal tea in the morning as you watch the sun rising on a new Spring day is also a lovely practice. Perhaps, if you don’t already have one, get yourself a Journal or book and think about a comfy chair by the window and a lamp. Create a space where you can support yourself to greet the day in a new, intentional way. With a busy household, this might not be something you can do midweek, but think about setting some time aside, even once a week, on the weekend, where you can create a space in the morning to meet the day in this new, embodied way.
Could you take a moment to take it in? What is it like when you do?
The Evening Light
In the evenings, as the day stretches towards summer, take your time before you close the curtains to watch the changing light across the landscape in the world outside. It doesn't matter if you are in a city or the countryside; notice the changing light in your room and allow the light into your home for as long as possible.
It's lovely to also bring a softness to your evening by lighting a candle, creating a cosy atmosphere of welcome to yourself. Think about creating a soothing space you wish to be in. A space in which you feel rested and relaxed. A space that is that is inviting and cosy.
Perhaps consider, even every once in a while, not having the electric lights on at all. Imagine what it would be like only to sit and be, in candlelight, in the rhythm of the evening unfolding. Imagine what that is like for your nervous system. It might be an idea to play with, even once, as a new experience. We are so used to being on our phones or using technology.
Notice what it's like to completely switch off and be in the natural light and candlelight. It is a very soothing experience.
“I asked the earth, I asked the sea and the deep, among the living animals, the things
that creep. I asked the winds that blow, I asked the heavens, the sun, the
moon, the stars, and to all things that stand at the door of my flesh….my
question was the gaze I turned to them. Their answer was their beauty”
St Augustine
Cultivating Beauty
If you go for a walk in the evenings, notice how the shadows lengthen and begin to pay attention to the landscape, the trees, the sky, and the changing light. Growing up in Connemara, the light was always different at different moments of the day. It fell differently on the face of the mountains and the valleys. It still enthrals me. Allow your senses to meet this new season in a conscious way, to meet the light as it changes. It is a wonderful gift to ourselves to find beauty in the ordinary.
Sometimes, I enjoy going for a walk with someone else so we can enjoy a chat and have that chance to connect with them. Other times, I love to go alone and have that little ritual of noticing for myself. Sometimes, I like to walk with no earphones, no music, no talking, and just observing. I allow myself to feel the air on my skin, the ground at my feet, the sounds, the stars at night, let go of tension in my belly so I can receive it, and see the brightness of the fields after a rain shower. All of it is beauty, and I feel it, full in my body. Breathing it in. The ordinary is not so ordinary anymore, then.
When was the last time you truly were present? To let your body feel? What does it feel like? What does it feel like to bring into your life?
Decorating Your Home for Spring
Notice how the light changes in your house and how the sunshine falls on the table. It's wonderful, too, to bring spring colour into your kitchen. Fill a glass bowl with lemons, limes or bright fruit and place it in the centre of the table. The bright colours are pleasing to the eye. Perhaps think about taking out the plates you love but have only used for special occasions. Maybe they are plates you have never used! Think about taking them out, dusting them down and enjoying them on a Sunday morning when the sun is spilling into your home this springtime. Notice what that feels like.
It is lovely too to think about what kind of food suits you at this time of year, food that pleases you. You might be more ready for fresh salads and nourishing soup. Something that feels different from the darker stews we are drawn to in the darker winter evenings. What food appeals to you in the Spring? Fill your pantry with that.
Returning to the Garden
I have always enjoyed planting flowers in the garden. I enjoy planting some window boxes with tulips or bright, cheerful primroses. Flowers that make me smile when I look out the window.
Living in harmony with the seasons is finding a conscious way of living in harmony with yourself. It is about becoming aware of what it feels like in your body. Living in alignment with the seasons gives us a gift of presence and connection— a gift to our body, our senses, and the promise of new life each season. This gift flows not only for the seasons but throughout the year as the seasons change. This gift flows into all aspects of your life.
“On that morning, the sun, which had steadily been approaching the corner, turns it, the golden round rising clear of all obstruction and flooding the kitchen with the first spring light. It is for us an occasion of real joy. We may not belong to the Golden Age or the years of the Golden bough, but we can observe and rejoice, and in such natural joy and natural response lies one of the profoundest secrets of human happiness.”
HENRY BESTON
Grá agus beannacht,
Eileen
Image: reference Tarkovsky