{ Autumn is here....sights and sounds }

 

(click to play, while reading this post)

 

 

It is a beautiful, crisp, Autumn morning. 

 

I just love this time of year, when Summer starts slowing down, and Autumn creeps in slowly, but steady.  I always think of this season as the quiet intruder, coming in slowly, not making much noise, a change in a leaf here, a change in the leaf there.

 

A few degrees cooler one morning, and before you know it, you are smack dab in the middle of it's beauty, and left wondering how you got there, without you hardly noticing.

 

 

Curt and I took a walk around our property this weekend, and of course, the camera was in hand to capture the signs of Autumn, because as I said above, you often miss them in your day to day life.  We are so busy with life that we tend to miss the small details.

I never used to pay attention, until I started blogging.  I then realized that I needed to always be on the lookout for a blog worthy picture.  It started that way and with that intention, but it taught me to stop and really look around everywhere I went.

I started to take in the details of the smallest and sometimes trivial things around us.  Before I knew it, I was searching these things out, not for a blog post, but just because of the peace and joy it brought me.

 

As we walked around our 3 acres, it dawned on me that God had brought us here, picked this house and placed us in a place that He knew I would fall in love with.

 

Outside our property gate, is life.  With it's technologies and busy schedules, cars and trucks, highways and shopping malls.

 

But the minute I pass my gate, through the driveway, to the house, I step into another place, especially during the cooler months of the year.  

 

And as we walked around, looking at the property line, making sure everything is as it should be, planning and talking, I realized that there are areas that almost feel magical.

Secret Garden kind of magical.

I walk between the trees, the only sounds coming from the crunching of the leaves beneath my feet, and the birds chirping on the trees.

Leaves of every color, shape and size, fall gently to the ground around me.  The air smells different, it's a mixture of cool, mulch, compost soil and pine needles.  Isn't it wonderful how certain scents and aromas can transport us immediately to a specific place?

Pine trees, pine needles and pine cones have that trigger for me.

One whiff of those and I am 5 years old, living in Portugal.  It is a cool Autumn day, and we are at the forest attending a huge picnic.  I don't recall what it was for, who the people were, or why we were even there, but I do recall the same feeling, the same trees, the same smells, the same crunching of leaves beneath my feet as I ran laughing with my brothers.  And at the end of the day, when we packed up our belongings in the car and got ready to leave, I remember feeling this sadness that I had to leave that beautiful magical place.

 

 

In my need and attempt to slow down, and to grab hold of my life instead of letting the busy routine take over, I am finding ways to calm my soul.

 

Sometimes, it is through a home cooked, stick to your ribs kinda meal, or a sip from a hot chocolate topped with the whitest fluffiest cream.  And sometimes, it is through sounds and music.  Lately it's been more sounds and ambience creating videos that really touch deep inside and invoke in me a peace and calm that is very much needed.

Right at the top of this post, I left you a video and I invited you to click on it and listen while reading my thoughts this morning.

When ASMR first came out, I was so put off by it, because it seemed to go in a very weird direction that I did not feel comfortable with.  Sounds of people eating, chewing, drinking, breathing and so on.  Many people grabbed onto it right away, and enjoyed these type of videos.  Me?

I shrunk back.

See I tend to be the one that goes against the flow, with many things.  That whole tik tok for example, I can tell you that I may be one of the very few who has never created an account on it, never downloaded it, don't ever go on there, and the only time I even see anything is by scrolling through Instagram, or if one of my family members shows me.

It's not my thing.

But back to the ASMR.  Once the weird side of it got played out, many decided to take it in a different direction, one which I absolutely adore.  It has brought me hours of peace and calm, like I can't even tell you.

There is something about the sounds of nature, birds, creeks, or the sounds of a quiet kitchen in the winter, the fire crackling, whisking of batter in a bowl, or even washing a dish.

Now those sounds, create just the right ambience for me.  And so lately I have found myself with these kind of videos on repeat.  Many are above 2 hours, most are 5 or even 8 hours long.  Perfect to turn on, and go about your day with relaxing sounds that calm the anxiety and the tense soul.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into Autumn on my side of the world, and I sure hope that you too are seeing signs all around you.  Take a step outside, breathe in the fresh air, it will do you a ton of good.