Watching Seasons Change
It’s understood that as we age, our perception of time shifts, making it feel like time speeds up. The older we get, the fast the weeks, months, and years fly by!
Personally, I never fully noticed this until I moved from Los Angeles to Portland. Living in LA for 20 years was a little like being a time warp: the days stay about the length year-round, the summer never seemed to end, trees don’t lose their leaves until January or February. Flowers were always in bloom - different ones at different times of the year, but there was always a feeling of lush vegetation that seemed to slow the passage of time.
Moving to Portland was a very difference internal experience. The seasons are much more defined; days drastically shorten in winter and never seem to end in the summer. The changing landscape is a constant reminder of the passage of time, and it was disorienting to feel like it just slipped away: blink, and it’s summer; blink, and it’s fall.
During the lockdown period of the pandemic, I started drinking my morning coffee in the backyard, rain or shine, snow or scorching heat. It became a bit of ritual for me. I watched the sun rise daily and was able to witness - and truly experience - the evolution of life around me. Grasses and trees coming to life and dying, flowers blooming and fading, the position of the rising sun ever changing in the sky. It was the longest year I’d had since leaving LA and I credit that to being truly present with the natural world as it changed.
In yoga, presence - experiencing now, experiencing what is - is one facet of union between body, mind, and soul. One way we can practice this presence by being in and observing nature daily. When you’re working or sitting in your garden, on a hike, walking the dog, etc, check out the leaves on the trees, the grasses and flowers that are blooming, the animals around you, the quality of the sunlight, the feeling of the air on your skin. As anyone who meditates regularly can attest, being truly in the moment is how we humans experience the infinite and timeless.