Between Seasons

Seasons do not change in a single moment. For a while, green remains beside yellow and red, late flowers open among fallen leaves, and a warm afternoon ends in a cool evening. What came before and what is arriving can exist at the same time.

This card from the Urban Forest Bathing series invites you into a brief practice of transition. Instead of looking for a clear boundary, notice a place where two seasons meet and remain beside one another for a while.

Mindfulness exercise: transition

Theme: Transition

Look for a place where summer and autumn seem to exist at the same time. A green leaf beside a yellow one, a late flower among fallen leaves. Notice both without deciding which one belongs more. Change does not always replace what came before. Sometimes, for a while, both remain.

Reflection:

What am I carrying with me into the next season?
What am I beginning to make room for?

Notice what coexists

Choose a small part of your surroundings: one tree, a flower bed, a patch of grass, or a branch. See how many stages of change are present in the same place. One leaf may still be entirely green, another may be turning, and a third may already rest on the ground.

Try not to decide which one best represents the current season. Let all of them be true at once. Looking in this way reminds us that transition does not need to be a straight line or an immediate farewell to what came before.

Change can include an in-between

Life also contains moments when the old and the new overlap. We may feel ready for a next step while still needing something from the previous stage. These experiences do not have to cancel each other out.

Watching nature change can help us recognise this as a natural part of a process. Not everything has to take its final form immediately. Sometimes we need to spend a little time in between.

A small practice for this week

During a walk, find three signs of the transition from summer to autumn.

Try to:

notice two colours on one plant,
look for a late flower or fruit,
feel the warmth of sunlight and the coolness of the air together,
name something that remains and something that is beginning,
stay with the scene for two quiet minutes.

You do not need to decide which season owns this moment. Simply notice how much an in-between time can hold.

Week 40 card: Between Seasons

This card may be supportive when you are moving through change and it is difficult to tell whether something has already ended or is only beginning.

Let the meeting of summer and autumn remind you that you can carry forward what matters while slowly making room for a new stage.

See this week’s card

This post is part of the Urban Forest Bathing series — 52 simple mindfulness practices inspired by nature, the seasons, and everyday contact with green spaces. You can find the full series here: Urban Forest Bathing.