By the time this reaches you, we will be well into September.

Seed-heads sway in the breeze. Apples hang, slowly ripening. Hedgerows are festooned with berries. Crops have been harvested, and hay bales lie scattered across the fields. Nature is transitioning.

The days are getting noticeably shorter as summer makes way for quieter times. The air itself feels different somehow. The season for young birds to appear in our gardens is passing. Change is imminent.

And as autumn approaches, the gannet chick I have been following for months on the sea cliffs is preparing to fledge. In another couple of weeks, he or she will make their maiden flight, never to return to the nest.

Watching this gannet nest has been one of the great pleasures of my summer. So the phrase “empty nest syndrome” feels especially poignant right now. I will miss my weekly, sometimes twice-weekly, visits. I will miss their awe and beauty, and the intimate, deeply privileged hours I have spent with the chick and his or her devoted parents.

Local wildlife folk have kindly warned me, “Don’t get attached. All sorts of things can happen.” But if you have been following some of my mails, you will know that of course I am attached. How could I not be?

Lately, I have been reflecting on change and loss. On anticipatory grief. And on the need to let go, as gently as we can, of what has been, to make way for what is yet to be.

We often hear “empty nest syndrome” used to describe the grief and sense of loss parents may feel when their young people leave home to live independent lives. Some of you may even be in that life-changing moment yourselves. It is natural. Something to celebrate. And a loss too.

In my case, it is a real nest. A real chick. And the wonder-filled hours I have spent in quiet companionship with them.

This week’s self-kindness invitation is to take a moment to notice any changes unfolding in your own life. If feelings of loss are part of that change, see if you can allow them, just as they are. Treat yourself with especial compassion and kindness.

Change is, of course, a fundamental phenomenon of life. And when we find it difficult, self-kindness becomes not a luxury, but a necessity.