Similarly I have a lot of ideas. Ideas about my house and how I should change it. Ideas about what I would like to do differently this Autumn. I then write them down on a notepad and I look at them every day, unable to put them into fruition. What do I do first? And then how do I start? This is so unlike me, I am normally a go get type of girl. The question of course is: how to get out of this vicious cycle? Sitting it out until October is one option, but seems like a bit of waste. How to go about this restlessness?

Balancing act

I usually look for inspiration outside and especially to the eastern philosophies. It seems that these ancient practices are just so full of wisdom that may have been forgotten over time. Following Chinese tradition, to start with, we come from the fire season, where the heat is on. Literally as the temperatures in summer are higher even in moderate climate. But also figuratively. We go out, stay up late since the days are so long, we go on holidays and explore our horizons.

As we enter August, however, earth season begins. Earth has very different qualities. It supports and carries us and provides nourishment. This in-between season is the perfect time to prepare us for the colder season to come. This time of harvest gives us the resources we will need once it is cold and little food can be found. Earth is equal yin and yang, connecting the yang energy of the spring and summer with the yin energy of autumn and winter.

Earth is also found as one of the elements in Ayurveda, the Indian ‘art of living’. Earth element or Prithvi in Sanskrit is dense and heavy, slow and gross. Much alike the balancing principle of yin and yang in Chinese tradition, in Ayurveda it is believed that earth element needs to be balanced with other elements in order to be healthy and feel good. The slower quality of earth can be balanced by nurturing our inner fire. Eating regular and cooked meals is a good starting point for that.

Balancing me

Back to my question. How to go about my restlessness? The answer is as simple as it is effective: to find balance. And it is exactly that which I am not great at. In my Chinese profile I have water and metal, which are the yin elements, related to winter and autumn respectively. I also have fire, which I already described above. So for me, I guess there are very few shades of grey. I am either on (in spring and summer especially) or off (in winter season). Off doesn’t mean that I do nothing, just to make things clear. It only means that I am more introverted, studying, working and spending time inside with family, instead of going out to find new horizons. But this in-between season? I just don’t know what to do with it.

Slowing down in late summer to me feels like I am going at a speed of 100 km/hr and I am about to hit a brick wall. Last year I was off for two months in summer as I was in between two jobs. I really took the heat of summer to come up with all new ideas and enthusiastically planned photoshoots that would match my ideas for new content, made a brand book and a website and then…it took me until late April, until well into spring, before I was able to get my ideas out into the open. Similarly, this blog should have been written and posted by the end of August or early September at the latest, but I find myself once again without inspiration or energy to write.

But this year in particular I was struggling. As we returned from holidays, there were three weeks of school holidays left. Even though our girls went to day care and I was able to do my job in the proper way, I just couldn’t bring myself to prepare for the busier days to come. Then came September and our eldest daughter started a new mixed age class in her Montessori school. Her friend that was supposed to go with her, moved back to Spain right before summer ended, and there she was, all alone in a classroom with all older children. It took her a mere four weeks to get accustomed to her new teacher, her fellow classmates and the work she now has to do at age 5 (almost 6), but still, they were a rough four weeks. I also helped organizing a charity event in her school, while at the same time maintaining my fulltime job.

You could argue that I just didn’t have time left to go about living with the season, redecorating different rooms in our house and writing about it, but that’s not what it felt like to me. I felt like I couldn’t bring myself to do any of the things I really love doing.

When in late summer, do as late summer does

So I once again looked at eastern and especially Chinese tradition to help me. Late summer is a good season to go back to or establish a daily and weekly routine, which is what I decided to do. I get up at the same time every day, cook a warm breakfast, go to work or do my chores for the day. I end my workday by making a list to do for the next day, which I then do right at the start of the next day. I found this is a great way to stay active and efficient in this season.

Late summer is also harvest time. Since we live and the city (and more and more people do) we might not always be aware of this. There is an abundance of food available in supermarkets all year round, which is why it is so nice to go and visit an orchard this time of year. We visit the Olmenhorst every year, a big orchard in the West of the country that opens up for plucking from August up until autumn break in October. Apples and pears are the seasonal go-to fruit and really symbolize the abundance of harvest we get to celebrate these months.

Other ideas to balance out your energy in this in-between season include nourishing yourself and eating food that warms you. Nourishing yourself can be taken quite literally in the sense that you need to feed yourself, but nourishing doesn’t just apply to the belly. It is equally important to nourish the head and the heart. And it just so happens that my heart fills up whenever I can be with my girls. This year my big girl needed some extra attention, as she was about to leave kindergarten behind and start her school career for real. I once took her for breakfast and she exclaimed: ‘oh mommy, this is what I love doing most! Spending time just with you!’.

And so we took an afternoon together (admittedly, this was already before summer holiday as you may have seen in my sneak peeks) and baked a cake. It was so nice to slow down during the heat of summer. I have had the photo’s lying around for quite a while now, but writing this blog reminded me of the importance of them, as they symbolize the fact that time goes by so quickly and we really have to slow down and enjoy it, with our loved ones, as much as we can. Children don’t need much. Love, attention and a nice cake will do just fine.

Love for late summer

And so it is already the first of October now that I am finally finishing this blog post to you. September was a late summer month in many ways. The weather was still really good, we spend loads of afternoons outside, we ate lots of ice creams and the start of a new school year accumulated with a busy time at work for both me and my husband, as well as organizing the charity event. However, slowly, but steadily, I am coming to a halt. I established a daily and weekly routine once again, which helped me gain back some effectiveness. I spend lots of time doing exactly what I love: spending time with the girls (and eating cake while doing so). And I finally managed to write this blog. It might not be the best I have ever written. But although autumn is and forever will be much more my season than this in-between time of late summer, I am slowly starting to appreciate the abundance September has to bring.