I realize this welcoming of September is a couple of days late.
When I walk in the river valley at this time of the year, the changes in nature become noticeable. Before I notice the colours changing, I smell the decay as leaves fall. This is noticeable if it rains, which it has been for the last week or so. It cools the evenings and nights, accelerating the pace of change.
The decay is a necessary part of nature. It is part of the cycle of birth, life, harvest, and rest essential to health. Parker Palmer writes beautifully about this in several places. Nature reminds us we need to prepare for rest in a meaningful way, gathering our whole self in the process. It is about eloquent questions. What have I birthed and nurtured during the spring and summer months that I harvest to help sustain me in the winter months? How am I letting my Spring and Summer ready me for Autumn and Winter?
Leaves tumbling,
Time for slumbering.
New colour vivifies,
Nature electrifies.
Summer falls,
Equinox calls.
Season to rest,
Reflect on harvest.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Lovely. ☺️
Thank you
Never looked on fall as a time for rest and reflection. A rather comforting view!
We start early some years in Alberta. It depends on how quickly winter moves in. I know it is supposed to begin in December, but it is just as likely to begin in October.
This is very reflective, Ivon. Thank you!
Thank you Ms. Dedeng
🙂
Lovely words – we are expecting snow next week. I’m kinda looking forward to a different view.
Thank yo Sumyanna. It is supposed to cool off dramatically in the next 24 hours in Edmonton. The snow will stay west of here, but I hear Calgary, which is much closer to the mountains, could have mixed rain and snow this weekend.
Happy teacher’s day! You’re one of the few amazing teachers I follow here. 🤩☺
Thank you Shruba. Your kindness is much appreciated.
This is so beautiful! Fall is my favorite season!
Thank you Cherie. It is beautiful as the colours begin to change. I enjoy the smell. It signals nature is preparing the ground for the next period of growth.
Oooh, I know! The smell is always a great indicator that Fall is here. I can’t wait to smell that sweet scent! We haven’t gotten there yet. I live an a warmer climate and we don’t usually start seeing those signs until around October.
Climate makes a difference. We are having freezing temperatures outside the city now.
Wow! I can’t wait for those cold nights! I sleep so soundly when it’s cold!
Ironically, today we have windows open as we are getting above seasonal. That changes overnight as we drop below next week.
That’s awesome! I’ve always loved having my windows open and letting the breeze in! ❤