Hello, HaQ readers! It’s happened again – August and September have come and gone, the kids are back in school, and days are getting shorter as the nights get cooler. Halloween is around the corner. It’s autumn. I love autumn.

I grew up in the northern midwest. Autumn was a long, beautiful sigh from summer sun to falling leaves to the first hard frost and even the first dusting of snow. We sometimes had our winter coats on under our costumes for trick-or-treat. Warm days, cool nights, football, fresh apple cider and donuts. Sweet, sweet memories.

Today I gave myself the gift of a beautiful fall day. The air was cool, the sky was blue, the sun was bright, and it felt so good to be out. I walked my dogs and, when that just wasn’t enough, I asked a friend to join me at a local park. We walked in the sun, lapping the pond a couple of times, moving with no purpose but to enjoy it.

Every once in a while, it’s nice to enjoy going in circles without a plan, just because it’s a pretty day and the whisper of the wind in the leaves calls you to play outside. Every once in a while, the homework and the housework can wait for a little soul work. And it is that – when you just go out and enjoy the world and your being in it for an hour, or a day, doesn’t it feed something in you? For me, there’s something about being out in the natural world that settles a hot spot that bubbles up. You know that spot – the one that gets all hot and prickly when all the “stuff” starts getting to you. Mine sits right below my breastbone and pokes ugly fingers at my ribs. It is not a pretty spot.

Time outside, time without a plan, time spent giving eyes and ears to what is beautiful – that unplugs the hot spot and replaces it with a lovely cool blue glow. I can re-center, reconnect with what is really important, feed what is real and true, and let go of what I don’t need. That makes a fall day a beautiful thing twice over. It’s worth the hour or two, every time.

Wishing you beautiful things, dear readers. Every time.

Stay tuned for more on the Here’s a Quarter blog next week! As always, your thoughts and comments are always welcome – they are moderated (I know – adulting again), so they may take a little while to appear, but I read them all and appreciate that you were here. Thank you!