Create Harmony

Pumpkin Bread, Leaf Peeping, And A Dog With A Glow Necklace

• Sally • Season 1 • Episode 150

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The first chill isn’t just weather—it’s an invitation. We gather the small, steady rituals that make autumn feel like a soft reset: a daily look at one changing tree, a short walk after dinner under early stars, and the warm comfort of a simmering soup or a loaf of pumpkin bread shared with neighbors. Our goal is simple and doable: build micro-moments that calm the mind, spark gratitude, and fit inside a full life.

We start outdoors, turning leaf peeping into a mindful practice that lowers stress without stealing time. Then we head into the neighborhood at dusk—glow collar on the dog, reflective layers zipped up—to rediscover how night changes the familiar and turns routine into wonder. When the light fades and the chill bites, we move inside for cozy rhythms: Crock-Pot soups, easy baking wins, and sensory boosters like fall candles and cinnamon-orange simmer pots that tell your nervous system you’re safe, settled, and home.

Connection matters, too. A simple fire pit can become the heart of the season—laughter, s’mores, and low-planning gatherings that fill the tank without draining it. Along the way, we make space for what’s hard. Joy doesn’t cancel grief or stress; it balances it. A favorite Robert Frost poem reminds us that change is fleeting and beautiful, and that noticing is its own kind of care. We close with a gentle invitation to try one new ritual, remember a childhood autumn joy, and carry it forward in a small, modern way.

Want more structured coziness? Our seasonal series boxes include guided visualizations and handpicked items from Petal and Pink to deepen your self-care. If this resonated, tap follow, share the episode with a friend who needs a soft landing, and leave a quick review—what fall ritual should we try next?

To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to the Create Harmony Podcast. I am so glad that you are here. So this is a place where we focus all our energy on goodness, things that are good around us in the world, and that is how we are different because there is plenty of negative energy out there, and we are not necessarily ignoring that, but we're pulling our attention to the positive things that we see each day. And we're celebrating those everyday joys, those things that are like pretty granular in life, but that are special, and sometimes we overlook them as we rush through our schedules. So this is episode 150, and I am your host, Sally Burlington. And in true create harmony fashion, today we are going to talk about all the things that bring us joy in the fall. So one of the things I love about where we live, we live in North Carolina, and one of the things I love about it is the change of the season. And I've realized that I have certain seasons that I like more than others, but basically what I like is the beginning of each new season, better than any specific one in the calendar year. So when the calendar rolls around to fall, I am always excited to see what's ahead. So at our house, the rhythm looks kind of like this. Once there is that first little chill in the air, I mean our temperatures stay warm sometimes until mid-September, but we we still get some cooler days, September, late September, early October, and we get out, you know, what fall decor we have. We like to decorate for the seasons around here. And we change out our summer plants to something that will continue to grow in colder weather. Our uh winters are not so harsh. So we do have, we can grow pansies or violas and you know, a few other things. And we, you know, get those swapped out and we start to enjoy the coming of fall. So here are some other things about the change of the season that maybe you want to lean into. Maybe just sort of ask yourself, where can I lean into the joy of the changing of the season? So maybe you could start with nature. Nature's always a great place to start. You can really pay attention to the changes in the leaves. This is pretty easy. You're gonna be a leaf peeper. And I know that sounds really simple, but sometimes when we get into our rhythms and we're going fast and we're in and out of the driveway every day, we don't really stop to notice how things are changing around us. So maybe what you want to do to have a little bit more fall joy is just pick one tree for this season and you're gonna watch it each day as it goes through the transition. And now look, listen, this takes minimal time and very little energy. It'll fit into most everyone's schedule. If you've got time to look at TikTok or Instagram, you've got time to look outside and see a tree's leaves change. And that is gonna help you. I know that seems like why would I want to do that? But it sort of rests your mind. It gives your your mind and your body and your psyche a chance to reconnect to the bigger, broader world around you. So getting outside can be really, really healing. You might want to add a short nature walk. Maybe while you're out there, you pick up a leaf or a pine cone or an acorn or something, you bring it home, just to remind yourself that you've been outside. And when you look at that thing, you're reminded of your nature walk. You just need to get out. Just breathe the air, see the sky. No matter where you live, you probably have some access to outdoors and some access to nature. And I know this is a little harder when the days are growing shorter and darker, you have less daylight to work with, but you can find a way to get out for just a few minutes and breathe that air. And being outside is very, very healing. So at our house, we have this habit of walking right after dinner. So we eat dinner a little bit on the early ish end and then we go for a walk around the neighborhood. And that really works best when the days are very long, when it's light until nine o'clock at night. We've got plenty of daylight left to take our evening walk. But we've tried to start doing it even when it gets colder, even when the days are shorter. We've we try to consistently, you know, it takes a few more minutes to bundle up. Maybe you've got to, you know, wear your rain jacket or whatever. We have a little uh light up, glow-in-the-dark collar for our dog so that it gets, you know, safe, more safe since it's dark outside. But it is really neat to be out. You can see the night sky, you can see the lights of your town. It's just neat to be out in your neighborhood and see what happens when it's dark. And so we've really been trying to continue to lean into that rhythm. And when we get into the holiday season, it's extra fun because you can walk around and see all the Christmas lights in your neighborhood. So even if you don't want to walk, if you're not a walker, just sit outside. You throw on a jacket, wrap up in a warm blanket. You can sit outside, and that can be a really restorative choice and bring you some fall joy. You give yourself time to notice the crisp air and take note of what's going on in the sky right at that moment. And that's right. I'm encouraging you to sit and watch the clouds for just a few moments. Put your device down. Don't sit outside and scroll through your device, but take a minute to just notice the bigger world. Maybe that seems like a fluffy waste of time, but I promise you it will help you break away from the stresses of your life. Even if you just do it for three minutes, it will give your mind a minute to sort through all of the things that are happening to you. And it will give your mind a chance to rest. So, okay, maybe outside is not your jam. But listen, if you're not an outside person, you're not getting off without a chance to restore yourself. You can find some cozy rhythms inside that are gonna restore your soul. Maybe you want to try a new soup recipe. We're big soup eaters around our house. We when when I was growing up, whenever it was a cold and rainy, we always said, you know, it's a soup day. I'm a big fan of the crock pot and putting soup in there and it simmers all day and it just makes the house seem cozy. So maybe you want to give that a try. There are tons of easy, quick soup recipes that you can make, and it's just very restorative. If you're not a cook and that's not something you're interested in, but maybe you like to bake. Maybe you're a baker. So you could bake something, something cozy and yummy. I I shared on social media the other week that I bake up a whole lot of pumpkin bread, and that's what we give to our neighbors during the fall for the holiday season. So, you know, find something that you could bake and that's yummy, and you can share it with your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, because that really feels good. It'll be um restorative to you to make something and then share it with somebody else, and it'll bring a little bit of fall joy into their day as well. Now, another way you can do it, let's keep in mind that we want to tap into our senses. And one of those is fall scents, like the smells of fall. So you could light a fall candle, you could choose something that you like and light that and just enjoy the smell. Or if you wanted to um make it even more simple, you could just simmer some fall spices on the stove that creates the same effect. Just get, you know, a couple cinnamon sticks, some cloves, maybe slice up an orange. These are great simmer pot items. It's very natural and it's just makes your whole house smell good. Um, I happen to work from home, so I could put on a simmer pot, and or if you work from home, you can enjoy that all throughout the day. Just put water in the pot and drop the things in and just put it on simmer. And it's a great way to welcome your family home each night. But if you are the one coming home, this can be a nice wind-down ritual to tell yourself that you are home now and that you're settled in and you're smelling that delicious smell and that you are feeling cozy and enjoying fall. Now, for you, fall fun might be along the lines of like bonfires and tailgating at the football game. This is might be more your vibe where you're gonna really embrace the vibe of fall. You're gonna get outside and laugh with your friends and visit. You can get a fire pit really a lot of different places at your home improvement stores, and there are a wide range of sizes, there are a wide range of price points. And so if you have any access to outdoors, you could grab yourself a fire pit, build a little fire, invite a friend over, make s'mores. All of that is great fall fun. And it's a really good family-friendly activity. You could invite your neighbors over or some kids down the street that might want to play with your kids. So that's a really fun way to enjoy fall. And I know you can think of many more fall joys that might lift your spirits. And all of these things might be just stuff you had already known, but dwelling on them for just a moment helps us get excited about them, helps us to really lean in to the joys that they bring. So from getting excited to throwing on your favorite cozy sweater, going in your closet and seeing that favorite sweater and popping it on, to maybe adding a heavier blanket on your bed at night, just think about all these little changes that you're making and enjoy them. Give that some thought. What are the autumn joys maybe that you remember from childhood that you can think of? And you can maybe when you think about them, you might discover a way you can incorporate that into your current life and in a small way in your day. Maybe just listening to this discussion is all you need to do. You maybe your list is so long that you think, I don't want to think about my childhood or throw an extra blanket on the bed. I've got enough to do right now. So all you needed to do was just listen and just envision all of these fall joys happening in your mind as I'm talking. So keep in mind that taking time to focus on this doesn't mean that we should tune out all the important issues in our life. It doesn't mean that we aren't gonna have a tough day. It doesn't mean that we're we aren't gonna feel heartbreak for ourselves or heartbreak for others when something terrible happens. This is just where we turn when we're fed up with our boss or our sister, because she did that same thing she always does, and it just drives me crazy. Or our kids are being extra needy, and we just, even though we love them, they're a lot to keep up with. And it just means that we can take a beat and we can rest our minds. We can see the good and it is well with our souls. So for our closing today, I'm gonna share one of my favorite fall poems by Robert Frost. And it goes like this Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold, her early leaves a flower, but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, so Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay. May it be so thanks for joining us today. If you've been following along, you might have already heard about this, but I want to remind you our seasonal series boxes are for sale now. What that is, is a subscription box. You would get the winter box this winter, and each of the four boxes per year have a card with a link to five guided visualizations or guided meditations, and they're all like very immersive experiences. You feel like you are actually living in that moment. And then there are gift items provided by Petal and Pink. They're our local mental wellness boutique, and the folks at Pedal and Pink have provided the neatest little cozy time items for our winter box, and we'll be doing that for all the other boxes. So it's a great way to check something off of your holiday shopping list or to provide yourself with some extra special self-care. So just check that out. You can go to my you can go to mycreateharmony.com and find out more. So hope you'll come back next week as we continue to celebrate the small joys and fleeting blessings. And until next time, peace.

Contributor

Sally Burlington

Host