Here we are in October, and it’s weirdly warm. Sometimes climate chaos is threatening, with high winds that bring down trees, torrential rain, devastating heat.

Right now it’s warm, and it is hard to feel threatened by unseasonal warmth. There’s still only a hint of autumn colour in the trees, and plenty of plants are still growing and flowering.

There’s no knowing what impact this may have. The late flowers are probably good for the bees, but there’s no way of knowing how natural systems are affected. Change is always a challenge, and the balances of eco systems can be incredibly delicate. Throw one thing out and there’s no knowing what the knock-on effects might be. I’m trying to hold a balance between reasonable levels of anxiety and reasonable attempts at pragmatism.

How the seasons affect you depends a lot on how much money you have and how healthy you are. There are plenty of conditions that are made worse by cold and damp weather. If you can’t afford to adequately heat your home, the cold part of the year is tough. For those who have plenty of resources, life is easier. A good coat and boots, a car, a well insulated home, a good heating system and so forth all have a huge impact on the quality of your life. The more insulated you are from the climate, the less you will notice the fluctuations.

One of the challenges for anyone on the Druid path is connecting meaningfully with the seasons. That can include working out how to step outside the insulation in your life to experience the wild world. Without having that first hand experience of the seasons, celebrating the wheel of the year is just an idea. If your life includes serious challenges, those can be a real barrier to connecting. During the times when I’ve been too ill to go out I’ve felt desperately disconnected from the world.

As the seasons shift from year to year with climate chaos, it’s hard to know how to make sense of things, how to celebrate, or what to celebrate. For me this has become a much more day to day process than trying to focus on seasonal narratives and festivals. It all feels really precarious – because it is. As things stand I don’t see that we can honour nature without recognising the way in which humans have unbalanced the natural cycles. It’s important to be present and uncomfortable because without that we are likely to be complicit.

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