Blog
Pausing for gratitude, remembrance and renewal
Wednesday 14th October 2026
Karen Durkin
After the languid heat and dry same-ness of the summer, Autumn is here in the South East of England, and every day is a journey through a changing climate. Misty, dewy mornings, blazing bright and hot afternoons, the occasional sharp shower and cool evenings drawing in. It’s taking a little longer to walk my daughter to school in the mornings - bundling up with our coats on, stopping to look at spiders webs glistening in the weak sunshine, and pointing at the fat rose hips that have fallen off the bush and are scattering the path with pink polkadots. I take a brief diversion home via the woods and it is tinderbox dry, dusty and crunchy underfoot with beech mast. I have to search harder to find acorns and the conkers seem elusive too. Maybe the trees are catching their breath after the spectacular mast year last year, and the long hot dry summer. Returning home, I top up the bird feeder with seed, have a moment pondering if squirrels or mice would eat the windfall apples and decide to leave them out just in case they are hungry.
Later on, as my daughter is practicing the songs they will sing in their Harvest Assembly next week, one line makes me catch my breath: “cause we want to share the best of all the good things that we’ve been given”. Yes to that. Yes to gratitude, to noticing the abundance and beauty of our world, to sharing what we have with others and making space to come together in community.
At the very end of the month, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain marks the end of the harvest season, and the halfway point between Autumn equinox and Winter Solstice. It is a threshold, a liminal space where boundaries blur. Many different cultures recognise a thinning of the veil between the world of the living and world of the spirits, and take part in celebrations of the dead, using themes of light, fire, costume and food offerings.
For our own Samhain ritual this year, we plan to make a meal, light a candle and lay an extra place for special members of the family and close friends who have died. We will tell stories about them and share fond memories. I am looking forward to this bittersweet moment. The kids are more excited that they will get to gather around the firepit later and toast marshmallows.
Samhain can also be a powerful time to pause, reflect on the year and release things that are weighing us down, holding us back or no longer serve us. Simple rituals could be to write down what we let go of and safely burn it on the fire, to hold a leaf and let it fall, or to open the windows of the house to let out the old and let fresh air enter.