From a tiny vase at my elbow, the season’s first gardenia perfumes the air as I type. Citrus blossoms, gardenias, jasmine, lily of the valley and stargazer lilies have, for me, the very same utterly intoxicating scent vibration: a feast for my nose and spirit!

Out the windows of my tent as I woke each morning, lying in my snug bed doing my daily Reiki, I watched as new leaf buds first appeared on the apple, persimmon and nameless trees, then fattened and soon unfurled leaves that seemed to grow right before my eyes.

What do self-acceptance and self-love look like, taste like, feel like, sound like? How does compassion develop?

The second big rains of the season, the first I’ve been home for, arrived last week. The California winter greening begins! Crisp air, voluptuous clouds, autumn’s special burnished light.

All the wonderful green beings that I brought with me from my old house are growing and flourishing so abundantly here. Not just the indoor and outdoor plants that were already in pots, but also the ones I dug out of the ground and put into pots.

The past few days have been the quietest, stillest days I’ve had in many weeks. The oppressive heat seems past. That’s made it possible and deliciously inviting to spend these still days mostly outdoors.

We’re in the midst of the fiery heat of another Ojai mid summer: endless days in the high 90’s and low hundreds. This year, our evenings haven’t always been cooling to their usual 60’s.

Without the familiar grove around me, I’m discovering new and different signs of the season’s unfolding. In my little meadow the California poppies, morning glories and morning glory-like pink flowers are still blooming abundantly.

More and more deeply I settle into this delicious new space and into what seems like my equally delicious “new” life.

After weeks and weeks of such intense (albeit slow-paced) activity preparing to move, moving and settling in, I am slowly reclaiming my “normal life.”

The season of my seemingly endless house-hunting travail has ended! I’m living–and finally relaxing–in my new, miraculously, wonderfully perfect house!

Such a strange time it’s been these past seven weeks since last I wrote. Out in the larger world, here in and around Ojai and, as well, in and around me: The barely conceivable, monumental devastation and dislocation of the tsunami.

The glorious fall weather continues, filling me with so much joy as I delight in wandering the trails again! In the groves, oranges begin their annual Thanksgiving time turning from green to the early yellow that will, by Christmas, be moving toward a deepening orange.

Fall is truly here. The miracle of clouds returning. The early rains that came like a monsoon and began the yearly greening along trail edges. Everything washed clear and sharp. The crusty dust of dry summer earth gone.

As I sit here writing, the incredibly sensual perfume of Night-blooming Jasmine (in its second blooming this season) wends its way in through the window, wrapping me in its healing musky tendrils.