Soaking in the End of Summer

Tuesday, September 4, 2012:

I can't even say that our surroundings changed from summer to fall overnight because it happened today--during the day--while I was away from home. I left at 10:00 a.m. to travel to Ashland with Frances. She dropped me off at work and when I arrived home about 7:30 p.m., the trip up the driveway was like a magical mystery tour.

How did so many trees turn from green to yellow within the space of one day? And how could the ferns change to yellow and dark brown in the space of nine hours? Ahhh, and then I remembered: We had two rainstorms during the afternoon. With that rain and the slight cooling of temperatures we have now advanced into fall.

Today was a rush-around day. After we completed our morning errands and I covered my hours at work I came home dead tired (I didn't get enough sleep last night eithers).

First and foremost, I changed into comfortable clothing and did my T'ai Chi Chih practice. I didn't do a full half-hour, but I found myself gently sliding into relaxation and extending my practice longer than I initially intended (it simply felt too good to stop).

After 20 minutes I allowed myself to disengage from the day's rapid schedule and settled into a quiet, relaxed evening.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012:

During my deck T'ai Chi Chih practice in late afternoon I felt the tingle of hot peppers between my fingers and debated whether I needed to stop my practice to thoroughly wash my hands. I'd just spent hours prepping two variations of salsa that I'll can later tonight or tomorrow. One batch used hotter peppers than the other.

But, heck, it felt so good to move after spending a major portion of the day standing in one or two spots in the kitchen that I ignored the tingle and kept on moving.

I looked into green leaves lightened by yellow off the south deck, counted the repetitions of each movement, and kept returning my attention to the soles of my feet. The temperature was just right (75 degrees) and now I'm seated on the deck as I write my blog simply soaking in the end of summer....