The Briar Philosopher - Not Counting the Days

I’ve never been one to count days, as a general rule. Things, good or bad, happen in their own time and counting doesn’t make them get here any faster or slower. The exception to that rule has always been winter for me. I never did like the cold. By this time of year I would have already been counting how long until the days get longer, how long until Groundhogs day, how long until time to plant peas and onions.  I’ve long been a creature of the Spring and would have been quite content to join the bears in sleeping through the winter. Just wake me up when the trees wake up.  

With all that being said, it came as quite a surprise to me the other day when I realized that I have not once paused this fall to count the days till Spring. I know it’s just November but by first frost I was always marking off days on the calendar in my head, itching to get my hands back in the dirt and feel the warm sun on my skin. Well, first frost was weeks ago and I have yet to feel the urge to push the season. 

Being me I couldn’t just notice that and think, “well that’s odd” and leave it at that. I had to think about why that might be. Why have I not felt the urge to project my mind forward to a time and season I prefer?  After turning the question around and around in my mind over the last several days I can only conclude that it’s because I have been more fully present in my days this fall and have found them richer and more satisfying due to that presence of mind. That has made me less apt to wish them a speedy departure perhaps. I have not felt the need to rush through them and get them out of the way to make room for better days. These days are just fine as they are. 

Maybe it’s age that makes it so. They say it brings wisdom and maybe, finally, it has settled into my brain that it is not good to hurry through my days for any reason. They are, and have always been, limited in numbers. Of course it’s not like I didn’t know that all along. But you can know something in your mind and still not have it settle into your perspective to the point that it changes how you approach your days. 

We are, perhaps, too predisposed in our culture to rush through things. Halloween was just here and now Thanksgivign is past and we’re gearing up for Christmas, just Seems like we are always waiting for something though.  We wait for school to start and for summer to start and for our birthday or that vacation or graduation or some other milestone. And that’s all well and good as long as we can keep our minds firmly seated in the present but that is often not the case. Many of us obsess with some future perfect tense to the point that the present tense, the now where we spend our days, gets very little attention from us.  We do this without really giving much thought to how much we are missing by projecting ourselves into what we believe will be better days. It could well be that the best of days are those we’re living through right now and we just can’t pause long enough to notice.   

For the most part, I have always been pretty good at staying grounded in the now. But then winter would come and all that would be out the window. I just couldn’t seem to keep things in perspective when the cold winds would begin to blow. That has been different this year and I’m glad of it.  Now, I can’t promise that I won’t backslide when the ice starts falling but, for now at least, I am embracing my days instead of counting them. I am noticing the light in the morning as the day wakes up and how the angle of the sun in the evenings paints the trees a different shade of beauty.  I am feasting on the sun while it is in the sky and, when the night falls, I am taking the time to go out and look at the stars again, to watch the moon rise. I am noticing how the cool air of evening makes the warmth of the house feel like a warm blanket of comfort falling over my shoulders when I step through the door. 

What I have found, philosophy wise, in all of this is that counting my blessings instead of my days has added a great deal of warmth to this colder season. 

May it be so or you as well. I hope that on Thanksgiving, just passed, you savored more than the meal.