How to Pay Attention This Week

The shifting patterns of the weather are simply preparing us for winter

The first few frosty mornings of the season are this incredible shift in everything around us. Seeing everything encased in this layer of frost or snow is absolutely magical. This week, we get our first snow at some point. It may just be when the rain shifts to flakes, or it may cover the grass and fields briefly. It is usually heavy and doesn’t stick around, but it is part of something important about this time of year…preparing us for winter and reminding us to find awe in even the endings in life.

These brief moments are like tiny guides to shifting the feelings in our bones towards a new season. The darkened days lend to the land being colder and seeing less sunlight. We are feeling the same. It reminds us how vital it is to be in the present moment and find absolute enchantment and wonder in the natural world. Even if we aren’t someone who loves the cold, it is powerful to walk amongst the frosted landscape on a crisp morning when the snow or frost still hangs amongst all the layers of the still living and dried plants. There is something magical about hearing both the crunch of the frost and the leaves beneath your feet at once. This is a brief moment in the landscape before it is too far into decay and the snow piles up.

The frost and the light snows are either here or coming, depending on where you live. Nevertheless, they help us turn our attention to the wonderment of the shifting landscape and the shifts within ourselves amongst them.

Below, you will find a guide to what, how, and why to pay attention to this week of Autumn.