Most mornings I watch the sun come up with a cup of strong coffee and my morning readings—an assortment of books I’ve read and return to regularly to refresh, ground, or prompt me to think in a different way. Today’s inspiration is a classic I reread each September. It comes from Mark Nepo: poet, writer, and one of the deepest thinkers (other than my father, of course) that I’ve ever read.

Routinely, he inspires me. Routinely, he confounds me. I’m always hopeful that next year I’ll understand the reading a little better, since, well, I’ll be at a different place in my life.

Spiral living, I call it, where time, so predictable, meets circumstance, so unpredictable.

Mark’s teaching, perfect for this season of transitions, comes from his meditation, “Outlasting the Fog,” in The Book of Awakening:

It reminds me of a man who built a home on a cliff by the sea,
only to have a month-long fog roll in.
He cursed the place and moved away,
but a week after he’d gone, the fog cleared.

Yep, this guy knows how to make you think, right?

Indeed, fall is the time for fog—for changes, chaos, and uncertainty. Perhaps it’s also a time for patience, for a little extra tolerance at both the lack of clarity we feel, and also for those we keep bumping into who may also be in their own fogs.

I love what sculptor Auguste Rodin had to say about patience:

Patience is also a form of action – Auguste Rodin

What a generous way to look at waiting, right?

Summer’s sunny pace has gone and we are waiting for the structure of fall’s routines to gel, to shape us, to remind us what’s important as we come into the home stretch of the calendar year.

Perhaps we need to simply be patient and “outlast the fog.”

Confession here, I’ve been swirling around in my own fog lately. This year I am certainly in a different place in my life. The book release for Morning Fuel is less than six weeks away and I am not-so-patiently waiting for the possibilities that have become probabilities to finally become confirmed plans!

We’re making progress though. Early reviews from my Advance Reader Copy submissions are sending sunshine into that fog. Author Anne Zimmerman said this:

Becky Galli has written a timeless book, the type to sit on your bedside table forever. MORNING FUEL is full of inspiration and wisdom for any season or any stage of life.

Wow. What an honor it would be for Morning Fuel to be on your beside table!

Thanks, again, for your steadfast support and encouragement—I could not have written this book without you.

And on we go. . .

How about you? What fog are you determined to outlast this year?

P.S. SIGNED pre-orders are now available, per your request!

P.P.S. Podcasts are coming! My conversation with Hilary Burns will premiere today at 5 p.m.