0:01 Hi, this is Katie, and thank you for joining me on the My Senses, My Space podcast. And this is a podcast about feeling the world intensely, creating time to support your needs and planning your space and life to fit you.
0:18 And today I wanted to talk about seasons. I may have talked about this before. I have many previous episodes and I try to keep track of what I've talked about.
0:28 But I mainly try to think about what is top of mind. And to me, I just dropped my kid off at school this morning.
0:38 And sorry, if you hear a little jingle jangles, just my earrings today. And I felt like looking nice in this season of my life.
0:49 I feel a big shift right now. And And not only is my kid going to a new school, as in he's growing up and going to upper level schools, there's something I'm really feeling tangible that is like entering this new season.
1:12 I am already feeling like fall all around me here in the Northern Hemisphere and I love this time of year.
1:20 Absolutely love it and having signs of it even the last week or so I know in previous years some are really extends into September and this year it's feeling a lot more fall earlier and I'm welcoming it.
1:37 I don't know what that means on the road but in this season this right now I'm savoring it. I'm just loving how nature is saying okay there is this big shift going on and when that feels congruent to shifts going on inside of me.
1:53 Oh, I just feel so much. It just, everything makes a lot more sense. So often in our lives, when those things don't line up, it can be very confusing.
2:05 It can be like, wait, I'm having this big shift in the middle of the summer when a lot of people are just taking vacations, especially like in August or something.
2:16 It can be very like, wait I need to do this big giant thing maybe I'm starting a new job maybe I'm moving like to have that as excuse me to have that as a marker in your life is either it can kind of feel like it's flowing like it is for me now or can just feel like very off-kilter which just means 
2:55 that we need to spend a bit more energy to wrap our brains around it to feel more aligned with what we're doing.
3:03 So it can be harder and you can be spending more energy during that time. Right now I feel like things are flowing for today.
3:14 I know things will get harder as we get more into the school year, but just sitting down right now, going, wait, that all just flowed a lot better than I expected it to, and feeling, yes, this like seasonal change and business change.
3:34 I'm doing some new things in my business that I will talk about soon, but I can feel like this is a bigger shift than in previous years.
3:46 This is a bigger milestone than previous years and it's because of different things. You know, it could be that people in your family that you live with or whoever you cohabitate with are having big changes as well and I feel that as well like and so to all live together or to even share with your friends
4:14 and extended family like hey there's these shifts going on and when multiple people are taking those shifts it can be easier to accept bumps with grace so just like hey we're all trying to get ready in the morning but this is a brand new schedule for us you go over here I go over here I'll try to
4:37 get this all time you do this and allowing extra time for all of that, right? There can be a lot of excitement around this and it can be actually a joyful time to make these shifts and if you're welcoming them then it's definitely a time to want to dig in, to want to get started and want to see what
5:04 this new excitement and fun part is. I don't think that's always going to be the case where those first beginnings can be so exciting but then there's going to be those messy medals and it's going to need extra time and patience and grace and some push through to get through those of like going oh this
5:29 is what it's really about. It was easy at the beginning but it's getting harder now and I think that happens with having kids too.
5:38 It's like oh my goodness you know birthing or adopting can be a long process and going through all that but there's those beginning first few sweet days and then it gets like really hard right it can get really hard at least for me.
5:56 I don't do well sleep deprivation and so there can be a lot in in the middle it's just messy and hard, but then another season comes.
6:06 They get bigger, they grow up to start taking on more responsibilities for themselves, and this is over a period of years, right?
6:15 And so we can go through not only like season changes in nature, but also these seasons in our life where we're very hands-on caregiving, but then we're pulling back, and then we're caregiving in a totally different way.
6:33 There's a lot of more mental caregiving, you know, as they're getting older. And if you don't have kids, there can be seasons of whether you have a pet, you know, having a pet is sometimes so heartbreaking because you see the beginning, middle and end of their whole lives and knowing what stage they're
6:56 at or if you prefer not to have take care of anything that is living companion in your life. You're still experiencing these cycles and these seasons in your life that are coming and going.
7:12 Maybe you're nurturing your business. Maybe you're nurturing your career. Maybe you're caregiving for someone else in your family Because they're going through a season, maybe you're somebody at work who's in HR and you're caregiving.
7:29 I kind of feel like that's almost like a caregiving role. I don't know. I may be assuming that, but there's so much kind of like helping people out throughout their careers and their jobs there, like how can I be a resource to people so that they can be successful.
7:49 So that's mainly what I wanted you to maybe think about is like, how are you nurturing this season? How are you nurturing the people around you if you have the energy for it?
8:03 How are people nurturing you through this season? And knowing that seasons do have beginnings, middles, and ends, and they are fuzzy.
8:14 They are fuzzy, they're not always going to be identical to other seasons at all, like every fall that we or autumn, whatever you'd like to call it, or every spring feels a little different.
8:29 There can be familiarity with it, but each one has its own kind of feeling. If you think back to like, oh, that fall a couple of years ago, I was starting that new job.
8:43 And this was exciting and now I'm two years into it and it feels very different and this fall that I'm starting is a very different season from when I started.
8:55 So some things to think about as you're going through your seasons and I just want to thank you for joining me on this podcast and I hope you have a wonderful transition into whatever season you're going into and I hope to catch you next time on the My Senses, My Space podcast.