Autumn’s Advent

The morning I sat down to write this newsletter felt like everything autumn should be. Fields wrapped in a moorish fog, weakened light of an early autumn sunrise, cool air nudging me into a favorite jacket. One could almost imagine that, if you watched long enough, you might see a Grey Elf on some lonesome adventure.

Lately I’ve been making efforts to make my home as cozy and inviting as possible for the coming season of shorter daylight and longer starlight. I managed to find some string lights shaped like pinecones, and it makes me happy in the simplest of ways to turn them on in the morning as I get ready for another day’s work. I’m well-stocked with candles (though who could ever have enough candles?), there’s hot chocolate in the pantry, and an extra blanket on the bed now, though Baer has decided it’s his to keep now.

School, while it wrings out my brain most days, has settled into a steady pace now. I’ve become more accepting of setting modest goals, focusing on keeping daily habits of translating and reading rather than pushing myself towards a premature perfection. And I find that I’m enjoying what I’m learning more. In and of itself, I love trying to puzzle out what a scribe wrote in Latin or Irish, I love reading the kinds of stories medieval scholars took pleasure in. It’s when I put too much pressure on myself that the play of learning becomes crushing labor. And so I’ve been very diligent to try, as much as I can, to ignore that self-imposed slavery to over-achieving. And the thing that has surprised me is my work has become more effective. I may not get as much done, but I am remembering more, and making clearer connections between ideas that might turn into a dissertation thesis.

When I’m more at ease, my brain can better process ideas in the background. I have more little epiphanies. I feel more creative. I feel more inspired by what I am doing. And if I’m going to be able to finish this degree, I’ll need every bit of those things I can possibly have.

So here we are, almost halfway through the semester, and I’ve only just figured out a pace for myself. But the important thing is that I did, and I’m making habits of taking better care of my mind and self that I can carry into the next semester, which will be one of my hardest. But meanwhile I’m hanging up my pinecone twinkle lights and planning on soaking up all of the little pieces of the autumn-into-winter season that I can.

Curated Joys

To help inspire you to fully enjoy this time of year, I have three loosely related things. First is the book I am slowly reading: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies. This book is wish fulfillment indulgence for what I wish medieval scholars could do. The main character, a professor from Cambridge, is doing fieldwork to discover information about fairies for an encyclopedia. I’m only about 70 pages in, but it is a cozy, slow pace perfect for slowing down my brain at the end of the day.

When I want to make the experience of reading as indulgently luxurious as possible, I do the following: make either hot tea or hot chocolate, curl up in bed, and turn on one of the many ambient videos on YouTube that pairs well with the book. This Cozy Castle Haven is a new favorite if you want something without music. When I do want to listen to music, this one is very peaceful.

Finally, here is some artwork that I thought would go well with our cozy autumn literary vibes. I recently discovered this artist on Etsy, and I can’t wait for her shop to reopen because I really want one of her prints! This one titled “Raft” is so imaginative. This little ragtag group of animal adventurers would look perfect on my gallery wall (my favorite is the brooding little knight complete with a helm).

Raft

Lily Seika Jones

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