Wednesday Walk: Living Fall

Getting introspective about this season, plus learning the true Wampanoag history

Welcome to Willoughby Hills!

Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…

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A Beautiful Fall

It’s getting darker earlier these days in New England and there’s a definite chill in the air. We awoke to our first frost yesterday morning. Luckily, I had been watching the forecast and was able to get the RV winterized in time.

It’s been a truly breathtaking autumn this year, perhaps even more so now that we’re living in an area surrounded by mountains.

We were out for a walk over the weekend, and my wife spotted a giant hornet’s nest just a few feet off the ground in a maple tree that was in full color.

A hornet’s nest in a maple tree (Heath Racela)

The nest appeared to be abandoned, but it was quite large. I walk this same route nearly daily with our dog and was surprised I had never seen it before. Perhaps the fall color has a way of drawing our eyes to parts of nature that we otherwise wouldn’t notice.

Jay Sherry talked in one of his podcasts about the four seasons of life that we live at various points. These life seasons are analogous to the calendar seasons, although they may not necessarily align:

“Fall is a time where many harvest the fruits of their labor. They gather and store things for the future. Fall is also a time to let things go. Have you been holding on to something for too long? Fall is the time to release and reset. You need to open yourself up to receive what is to come. ‘We've all resisted releasing things whose cycle or the time has ended,’ Jay Shetty explains. ‘It is exhausting. We're working harder trying to make that job or that relationship work for us when it's just time for things to change.’”

I love the fall and the introspection it can bring.

Many of you reacted positively when I mentioned Marcelo Gleiser’s book last week in the newsletter. I recently picked up my copy of The Dawn of a Mindful Universe from the library and this was the first line of the book:

“The universe has a history only because we are here to tell it.”

I’ve been sitting with that idea for a few days and am struck with all of it. This beautiful world, without our human senses and brains and ideas, would continue to exist just fine, but what meaning would it have if there was nobody there to interpret that meaning?

Moonrise over the mountains (Heath Racela)

I am writing this on Tuesday evening while I wait for my daughter at a practice. I’m watching a nearly full moon rise over the mountains, with the sky turning pink as the sun sets behind me.

This world can be messed up and scary at times, but boy is it wonderful too. Let’s take this fall to reassess our relationships with each other and with this strange ball of rocks and water that we call home.

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With Gratitude

As I say often, this newsletter and my podcast are only possible because of the continued support of my audience. I’d like to take a moment to thank Farah and Sean for becoming the two latest paying members of Willoughby Hills.

If you have the means and the desire to support my work, I am always grateful.

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The Truth

Last November in this newsletter, I had called out the incredible book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, by Linda Coombs, the first book in the Race to the Truth series. I was reading it with my kids and really loved how it humanized the story of the Wampanoag people of Massachusetts.

I have since read many of the other books in the series and interviewed Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn on the podcast, author of Exclusion and the Chinese American Story.

Judd Legum

of the Substack

Popular Information

is reporting that a Texas county is reclassifying Coombs’s book from non-fiction to fiction:

“The decision was made after the government of Montgomery County, under pressure from right-wing activists, removed librarians from the process of reviewing children's books and replaced them with a ‘Citizens Review Committee.’ Colonization and the Wampanoag Story was ‘challenged’ by an unknown person on September 10, 2024. The Committee responded by ordering that the book be moved to the fiction section of public libraries in Montgomery County by October 17, 2024, according to public records obtained by the Texas Freedom To Read Project shared with Popular Information.”

Legum goes on to describe the review process for reclassifying and removing books:

“Under the new policy, once a children's book is challenged, it must immediately be moved to the adult section, with only adults allowed to access it. The book is then considered by the Citizens Review Committee at a meeting that is ‘closed to the public except for the Resident who made a formal request for review.’ The decisions of the Citize's Review Committee are final, and there is no appeals process.”

I loved reading this book with both of my kids. It brought up some interesting questions and points of discussion. I was equally thrilled to hear that both of their teachers have this book in their classrooms this year, with my daughter’s teacher reading it to the class after we returned from Cape Cod last month, which was Wampanoag land.

The entire Race to the Truth series is phenomenal and worth checking out! It’s great to read with kids, but equally as important for adults to read as well.

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Other Wednesday Walks

Thinking of the Refugees

My Hurricane Experiences

If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.

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