The Spaces Between: Where Solace Lives

photo by Justin Leubke

I sit with the sun and the easeful September air and the morning dove in her song as the reddish-brown leaves slowly cascade from above. I also sit with a deep desire to remain simply unbothered. Or as unbothered as is possible in this society we live in. I find myself yearning for space, for peace, for quiet. For living along my own timeline and way of life. Is retreating to a cabin in the woods even the answer anymore, with all this wildness of weather and fire that we can’t control? There is no peace in being trapped down a remote and winding road with constant threat abound. In this way, I fear the dreams that used to enthrall the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Mary Oliver, and Georgia O’Keeffe have shifted entirely…or rather, may be lost for good.

This retreat I’ve created here in this home does a good job most of the time, but doesn’t always keep the noise of the world at bay. And perhaps it’s not meant to. Perhaps we are meant to live within the world and seek out our solace elsewhere, like through exploration in nature. Creating and tending to relationship with nearby wild places. Or getting completely lost in the flow of creative endeavor and our work that’s called to us on this earth. Maybe this is the escape we seek. Both literal, setting out into the external unknown regularly to grow a little closer in familiarity each time, as well as carving out inward sacredness and a hollow emptying where peace can linger as we invite it in. Perhaps this is the dance that continuously shapes our lives and allows us to return to the world anew and ready to engage once more.

I think the approaching fall season holds a distinct essence of home. An eye for treasuring the small delights of comfort and the simplicity of daily rhythms, while we hold onto the light just a little longer. The meals get warmer and envelope the house in smells of spices as the ritual of reset and stewarding a calm kitchen becomes a welcome nod to a gentler, slower paced morning beginning. It all softens into a recipe for a well-lived and intentional life. And we return to the beauty that exists in each small moment as the wisdom of the seasons settles into the nooks and crannies of our routines.

It’s as if the welcome and often nostalgic transition from summer to fall, the slow progression from acceleration and momentum to a brisk walking pace is a mysterious and powerful time where we are able to become rooted in the earth once more, yet still wild and free.

A crossroad of time and space where we can capture all that is good in the world and all that is good within our inner dwellings – both energetic and real. A time I would like to cherish as long as it lasts. And a fire of remembrance I will bring inside as the chill of Autumn wind soon ushers us indoors and into a slower season of life once more. 

For now, I’ll find gratitude in having found solace in this reflective whisper, that carried me away if only for a moment, as the world circles around me. Buzzing with activity and production. And I’ll remember that maybe that sacred space isn’t so very far away, down an old dirt road through the forest, as I may have thought.