Out of the Blue: Life is Not Linear
Sep 04, 2026
Every year, I think it’s my imagination. Now I know that it isn’t.
Most mornings, I get up early to walk four or five miles as a way to start my day. The last few years, I have noticed something unexpected.
Summer here in the great American Southwest is hot. There’s nothing unusual about that. We can in all honesty and without a trace of hyperbole, say things like, “This was a pretty good summer; it only got up to 113 this year.”
In summer, sunrise usually occurs about 5:30 in the morning, nothing unexpected there. What is a bit different is that the temperature can hit 90 before 10 AM in August.
It’s a running joke around these parts: summer starts at the end of March and goes until at least Halloween.
But still, something happens around the start of September and it happened again this year, exactly on September 1.
The world does not change in a linear fashion.
I’ve been suspecting this for a few years and last year I took specific note of it to see if it was just my imagination.
A couple of days ago, the sun broke over the mountains to the east just a little after 5:30 in the morning. By 6:30, the temperature was in the high 80s and rapidly climbing. By 9:30, we had already crossed the triple digit mark.
Today, the sun didn’t peek over the eastern mountains until nearly 6:30, and—this is the thing that first caught my attention when last week a T-shirt and shorts were too much clothes in this heat—this morning the same outfit felt chilly.
The phenomenon is well-known.
In the Great American Southwest, around the solstices, when daylight reaches its annual maximum or minimum, the day-to-day rate of change is remarkably small.
As we approach the equinoxes, the rate accelerates dramatically, approaching three minutes of change per day.
It’s not my imagination: from a human perspective, time moves faster as we approach the fall.
In this area, that change can’t happen soon enough. Cooler days are a welcome, refreshing reward, widely celebrated in these parts: “It was cool this morning - did you feel it?”
Now, with the great privilege of age, I see that a human lifespan has very distinct seasons as well, and that—as we move from autumn towards the winter of our lives—the perception of time is similarly non-linear.
Time, so it seems, moves faster.
Towards the end of my 50s, life had started to take on a bit of the feeling of an interminable Southwestern summer.
I had successful careers in a number of fields: emergency and critical care medicine, psychology, education, entrepreneurship.
But I had been to enough conferences, held enough board meetings, managed and led enough people, innovated enough new programs, climbed enough ladders.
I had experienced more than my share of loss and growth and, of necessity, had developed enough resilience to actually look ahead. To see what I wanted to do—to be—next.
It never got to the point of “When is this going to be over?” which is common towards the end of a high-desert summer, but more a case of, “It’s time for a change, now.”
And sure enough, the change came suddenly. Not overnight as is the case with the advancing seasons, but still quite rapidly in the course of several decades of lived experience. Over the span of a lifetime.
“Out of the blue“ is a phrase we use to indicate a situation that occurs unexpectedly, i.e. not in a linear fashion.
Out of the blue, or so it seemed, I had retired from my latest career as a counselor and professor, was waking at five or five-thirty in the morning naturally, without an alarm.
I cleaned up my diet, started to exercise regularly, lost 50 pounds.
These days I roll out of bed quickly, with a sense of excitement; something that honestly hasn’t happened since… Well, I’m not really sure when.
I can’t wait to get started and spend the day fully engaged in the post-retirement purpose I have chosen for myself, to be a storyteller. It has been a few years now, and my enthusiasm has not waned. I thoroughly enjoy writing and composing music, producing and delivering my weekly live Internet broadcast.
I’m sharing these observations about my life to offer you a sense of hope and gratitude about your life.
The seasons of life, it turns out, have much in common with the meteorological seasons. Just when you think it will never change and you start to ask yourself “Is this it? Is this all there is?” Change will happen, and more rapidly than you expect.
And like the sudden change to cool breezes after a long, hot summer, the change can be welcome and refreshing.
Don’t lose hope.
Read my recent interview with Dr. Mehmet Yildiz here.
My novel, The Calling is available now in print and as an eBook.
Click here to subscribe to SHADOW & STAR, my free weekly newsletter.
To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, visit the Jeff W Welsh website, subscribe to my Substack or Medium accounts or the Hardcore Happiness blog page, and follow my Instagram account for regular insights.
Borderland Radio is LIVE every Thursday night at 8 PM US Pacific Time - call in and be a part of the show!
- JWW
Subscribe to the HARDCORE HAPPINESS blog
Never miss a post, and get goodies meant only for our community!
We will never sell your info. Ever. EVER!
