How to Pay Attention This Week

The shifting light and the low blue clouds are a guide to our emotions when transitioning

When I was a child, my dad always commented on the clouds. I remember many summer days he would see the storm clouds forming over the soybean fields near our home when we lived in southern Michigan. The clouds would climb like mountains and create shelves, clouding the skies early in the evening, far before darkness normally descended that time of year. The lightning would shoot all around the open skies of the flat lands around us. My dad would bring us to the porch to take it in as the fireflies gathered over the fields, creating a lightning storm of their own. I would sit there with him, and we would count between the lightning and thunder till it was so close and the rain came like a wall over the fields. We could feel the power of nature as the rain brought cool air the moment it hit the ground and the rat-a-tat hit the porch roof. A sound and magic that brought humility and reverence to how nature can move the landscape and us. I remember thinking how, after the storms the clouds brought I would feel as alive as the greens that rose from the fields around us after the storm passed.

As an adult, these memories have made me constantly observe the language the clouds speak as they climb over the hills around us. As a northerner, I have learned the clouds constantly tell the time of the year if we pay close enough attention. I know the ones that are whispy through the sky in the summer over the lake. I know what happens when the water and air are nearly the same temps, how the clouds disappear and give us blue skies, and how this is really only seen regularly in the dead cold of January and February and then again in July and August. I also know the days when the clouds lower over the lake and the oranges of the shifting trees bring them into brighter, more contrasting blues as only fall can.

Without a doubt, though, autumn brings the most dramatic clouds. The conversation between the warmth of the landscape and the chilling air that comes one day from the north will always bring artistry to the clouds above us. The clouds hang low, and the blue tones speak of cold. The warmth feels like it has dissipated from them, yet the sun dips between them as it lowers while heading further and further southwest each day, the closer we get to the shortest day of the year. The clouds hang heavy and moody over the hills, and sporadic showers accompany them. As the sun peaks, it reminds me of what is behind us and ahead of us in the seasons. Nevertheless, when the rain falls, and the sun shines through the openings, the words “Where is the rainbow?” always circulate through my head.

In that moment, I am reminded, because of these lowering clouds that can feel heavy if we aren’t careful with ourselves, that there is always beauty around us even when we are in times of shifting landscapes and heading into darker days. They encourage me to light the season's first beeswax candle and settle in with warmer foods. They encourage me to live slowly, just like I will now spend time cooking the final harvests of the season, savoring every last ounce of the sweetness in summer. The clouds can guide us on how to live, but it takes time to learn how to read them just as well as the clocks in our homes.

Learning to listen carefully enough each season to the clouds can give us permission and lessons on what our emotions may be in that season.

• Summer is a time of abundance, and though most days are bright blue skies, storms are expected when things become too much.

• Autumn is a time of transition; we will experience many emotions, sometimes right on top of each other. Guess what? That is okay.

• Winter is a time of rest, so many days will look the same. Low gray clouds with falling snow repeat and blend the winter days into one, as rest can do.

• Spring is a time of reviving and growth. The skies will bring rain and bright times of sun to remind us that transition into growth is complicated, just like fall, but this time with a different movement. Sometimes, the rain will be snow, and we feel we are going backward…but that is also part of growth.

We can learn right now to bring this part of our attention toward nature to learn a little more about how the clouds can guide us through various seasons of life.

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