Natural Family Living: Focus on the season to connect with your natural surroundings

By Teresa Youngblood

What we share this time of year, whatever our spiritual path, is a change of our environment. Our days are shorter, our nights are cooler, many things green are fading and bare trees are beginning to mark the landscape. Our collective experience of the turning of the seasons offers many ways to connect with place, friends, and family.

Making a meal entirely out of seasonal produce establishes a strong connection to our region as well as earth-friendly eating practices. Through November, look for locally grown eggplant, squash, persimmon, citrus, garlic, lettuces, kale, collards, celery, and many other fruits, vegetables, and herbs available at the grower’s market at Lake Ella on Wednesdays and the farmer’s market at Market Square on Saturdays.

For our wild birds, food sources are becoming a bit scarcer. Put out a bird feeder and keep it filled with nutritious seeds throughout the cold months. Rustle up a bird identification book and try to get to know your feathery neighbors by name.

Save precious fossil fuel-generated electricity and enjoy a “lights out” evening. When the sun goes down, make use of only clean-burning candles (such as beeswax or soy) or moonlight as you eat your evening meal, take a walk, or read stories.

Don’t go in for store-bought seasonal decorations made of cheap materials and shipped from far-off places. Instead, gather pecans, walnuts, pine cones, acorns, and other such tree cast-offs, and place them in a bowl or arrange them on a shelf, mantle or windowpane to remind you the of life cycle of which they, and we, are a part. In the spring, return them to the ground for the animals and organisms to claim.

Make a garland out of popcorn, pine boughs, dried flowers, or holly and place it over the doorway to welcome visiting friends and family into your home.

Plant bulbs and tubers such as narcissus, daffodil, or iris now in a lovingly prepared bed, perhaps even covered with this year’s fallen leaves, and watch them grow and flower next spring.

Gather small twigs and branches from your yard or neighborhood and use them to start a fire on our first really cold night. Even if you don’t have a fireplace or fire pit, a small grill can stand in and makes a cozy, safe fire around which you can gather to talk, eat, sing or just gaze.

The signs of changing seasons may not be as dramatic as they are farther north, but they are nonetheless special and important; make a few notes on your calendar or keep a journal about the things you notice changing around you. Encourage other family members to do the same, and spend some time talking about what each of you is observing and feeling.

Though they are best known as warm-weather destinations, don’t overlook our geographical attractions such as Wakulla Springs, Torreya State Park, or Maclay Gardens as the weather cools. Hiking, walking, and bird watching at our state parks is most enjoyable this time of year, and offers the opportunity to get to know all the beautiful faces of our land.