Awareness......

I was thinking today about the passing of the Season, it's most certainly Autumn now but it's not just the colder more blustery wet weather that makes this apparent to me. Something stirs inside me and I find myself shopping for tins of food, stocking up the cupboards and freezer with ingredients for good wholesome casseroles, making sure we have plenty of logs stacked and stored ready for the cold nights that are to come, and as I make these preparations I get sort of excited knowing that I shall be prepared even if we were to be snowed in for a couple of weeks (not that it has ever happened here in Northampton). I find it increasingly harder to get out of bed in the mornings, maybe because it's still dark but I know from experience as Autumn fades into Winter there will be many cold mornings in the depth of the Winter that I won't want to get up, not just because of the cold but I feel more tired like I could stay cocooned in my duvet for days at a time. Of course, I never give in to this, I can't as I have my dogs and family to look after, not to mention work to go to. When I'm out with the dogs and on my way to work I find a sense of exhileration in the biting wind and the crisp frost beneath my feet. Then when I look around me I see that the squirrels and rabbits, hedgehogs and other small mammals have made the same preparations and being able to follow their natural instincts, have gone into hibernation. So why should we be amazed at these instinctive feelings? we are also mammals with instincts that we ought to trust and instead of smothering them we should try to tune into them more to be more aware..........