2018 Autumn Self-Gift Registry-Pumpkins, Leaves, and Cinnamon
2018 Autumn Self-Gift Registry is the focus. Greetings, Enchanted Journeyers. We have rolled into a new season! In the Northern Hemisphere, autumn arrived last night, September 22nd at 9:54 pm EDT.
I hope that you experienced a summer of enchanted excursions in the extended light, time with your family and friends, laughs around the summer fire pit, BBQs, the beach, and sunlight through trees. Did you try heirloom tomatoes with olive oil drizzled on them? How about ice cream cones with a double scoop of your favorite flavors?
Southern Hemisphere
For our friends in other regions, I invite you to apply the seasonal gift registry to your anticipated season.
The Self-Gift Registry
I started the idea of a self Gift Registry at the beginning of each season. The gifts are experiential and earn you as many Enchanted Keys as possible. Here’s how it works: You set aside some time to quiet yourself and meditate on the upcoming season. Make it ten to twenty minutes. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the season. Then you schedule moments to experience these things on the calendar so you feel abundant at the close of the season. Grant yourself Enchanted Keys: Mindfulness, Altered Perceptions, Journaling, Sensory Experiences, Reduced Clutter, Humor, Movement, Art, Nature, and Meditation.
The Meditation
Find a comfortable position. (Preferably at the base of a tree whose leaves may be starting to turn.) Take a few deep, cleansing breaths and exhale fully.
Sights
As your physical body relaxes, envision fall. See pumpkins, gourds, hay bales, tricolored corn in their dried husks, barrels of apples, and acorns on the ground.
Sounds
Let your sense-memory shift to the sounds of fall that bring you joy, laughter or peace. For me, I hear a crackling fire, leaves and twigs that snap under my boots and the chimes clanging in the strong winds. Fall also heralds festivals.
Smells
Drift to the smells of the season. Mulled hot apple cider with sticks of cinnamon, chocolate pumpkin bread, smoky, roasted corn and root vegetables, along with fragrant herbs simmering in my soup pot are among my favorites.
Tastes
Taste the season. See above to match the smells. Of course pumpkin anything is the flavor du jour.
Textures
Textures feel like sticky, warm marshmallows browning in a campfire, soft, sage leaves rubbed between my fingers and brittle-edged oak leaves that have plucked themselves from the trees.
Autumn’s End
Autumn ends as winter begins this year on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 5:23 p.m. EST.
Take yourself to the end of the season and consider what you will have missed if you don’t experience it. Then make a plan to do those things. Schedule them on your calendar or the Dragons will make you forget you ever dreamt of them.
Share with us
Please post your comments about what’s on your calendar to savor. You may spark beautiful memories for another Journeyer with your sharing.