Matt Collins for Scientific American
Welcome! It's Thursday, October 2nd, 2025
I have an autumnal challenge for you.
30 days. No need to follow this verbatim, make it your own.
Here’s the preamble to get you in the mood.
It’s October 1st. I'm standing in my front yard, watching an elm tree let its leaf go.
Not dramatically or with any fanfare. Just... release.
And I'm thinking about how we've got this whole thing backwards.
We live in a world that screams faster, more, now. Endless KPIs, metrics, data running everything.
What did Zuckerberg say? "Move fast and break things?”
Preparation looks like stalling and patience has been recategorized as procrastination.
That squirrel in my yard isn't stressed about her acorn quota btw.
This elm has been preparing for this moment since July. Slowly pulling chlorophyll back into her roots and gradually revealing the yellow-gold leaf.
The elm trusts a timeline that has nothing to do with our artificial human urgency and everything to do with the natural order of things. It’s completely unfazed by human urgency.
Give yourself permission to allow creative transformation happen on longer timelines.
Monet returned to the same field, day after day, season after season, watching light shift across grain (not a weekend sprint). Patient and persistent.
Georgia O'Keeffe spent decades painting the same desert landscapes, each canvas a deeper conversation with the same eternal subjects.
Creativity has seasons.
There's a time for planting (spring's wild experimentation).
A time for growing (summer's disciplined craft-building).
A time for harvesting (sharing the work that's ready).
A time for gathering, preparing and letting go.
Autumn is the gathering season.
Sakai Hoitsu, Autumn Leaves, Edo Period, Japan
When trees drop their leaves, are they irresponsible? What about farmers? When they let their fields lie fallow are they procrastinating?
They're doing the essential work that feeds all other work.
Today, we're diving deep into autumn's creative curriculum: patience, preparation, and practice. Gathering what speaks to us.
Xu Gu, Autumn Chrysanthemum, 19th century
Liu Deliu, Squirrel and Grape, Chinese, 1806-1875, Folding fan mounted as an album leaf. Image credit: The Met, NYC.
Gmail format will cut us off. Read here with ease.
Know anyone who’d like to join us (btw, always free)? Share this email or copy URL here.
Send feedback (and what you want to discuss next) at [email protected]
Autumn’s 30-Day Gathering Practice
Even if you do not intend on doing this challenge, read over it.
A 5-second act of noticing just one of these during the 30 days will help your daily creative practice.
Intentionality, awareness, and drawing connection between things is our goal.
Here’s the idea.
Let’s Gather Stuff
We’ll call this unhurried abundance. (It’s not about productivity). Let’s gather raw materials that can fuel your work.
Here’s a working outline, but make it your own.
First, the archive needs a home.
Find a gathering vessel. Don’t make this hard. Doesn’t need to be perfect. We’re focused on physical abundance. So find a vessel and put your stuff in there.
Second, at the week’s end, spread your week's collection on a table like a feast.
I call it the Sunday spread:
Read or identify everything aloud
Notice what wants to connect to what
Identify the one fragment that feels most alive. Any idea why?
Ask, what do these things want to become?
Week 1: The Sensory Harvest
Collect one of these each day, preferably outside, or out and about.
Monday: A color that stops you cold
Tuesday: A sound that makes you giggle or induces a reaction or stands out
Wednesday: A texture that requests your touch
Thursday: A scent that triggers a reaction or a memory
Friday: Taste that tells a story
Over the Weekend: Perhaps a combination of these that creates wonder or anything that creates wonder for you.
Week 2: The Conversation Harvest
Collect one fragment of human truth each day. The Rule: No judgment, no fixing, just pure collection.
Overheard conversations that reveal something universal
Questions that have no easy answers
Moments when someone's mask slips and you see their real self
Stories people tell when they think no one's listening
Week 3: The Inspiration Harvest Ritual
Collect one physical object each day that connects to your creative work. If you can’t bring it with you, take a picture and print it out.
Monday: Something discarded that has potential (interesting packaging, worn fabric, broken table)
Tuesday: A tool or material you've never used before (new pen, different paper, unfamiliar medium)
Wednesday: Something that doesn't belong where you found it (a single glove on a fence, a book left on a park bench)
Thursday: Something that represents a contradiction. Here s some examples, temporary permanence (stacked construction cones), chaotic order (bird s nest).. etc.
Friday: An object that makes you wonder about its previous life (well-used tools, faded receipts with interesting purchases)
Saturday: An object that embodies a skill you want to learn
Over the Weekend: Something that makes you ask "What if I used this in my work?"
Week 4: The Failure Harvest Ritual
Document one creative "failure" or abandoned attempt. These are like compost for future growth.
The sketch that didn't work but had one interesting line
The paragraph you deleted but contained one true phrase
The idea that felt stupid but made you laugh
The experiment that taught you what you don't want
Your Autumn Harvest
Connect the dots between your fragments.
Lay out all 30 days of fragments
Which fragments feel electric with possibility?
Draw connections between related pieces
What patterns emerge across your "failures"?
Choose three seeds to plant for your winter creative work
Gather and trust that your creative abundance comes from your attention, not your urgency. If you’re feeling like sharing, send me a pic or two of your collections. I’d LOVE to see them.
Send here…[email protected]
John James Audubon & John Woodhouse Audubon, Carolina Grey Squirrel, Male & Female, Plate VII, From The Quadrupeds of North America, Octavo Edition,Published New York and Philadelphia, 1845-1871
That’s it for today 💟
I want to wish Jane Goodall, goodnight.
She was here in Austin a few weeks ago on Overheard with Evan Smith.
Austin PBS Instagram
It’s difficult to read it here but Jane is quoted as saying, “every single day we live, every single one of us makes some impact on the planet, and we can choose what sort of impact we make.” I’m sad to have missed seeing her while she was here.
Jane Goodall presents paintings created by rescued chimpanzees in Tchimpounga Sanctuary.
Hey ya’ll love on your creator friends.
EMAIL me with your thoughts about the content here…..I want to know hear from you….[email protected]
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