Fall has returned! In this season, nature lets go of its abundant creation of the past year in a grand final display. Leaves turn brilliant colors and drop back to the earth, enriching it to promote (nourish) the coming growth. In autumn, we can learn more about ourselves because, after a harvest, everything is bare. Autumn marks the end of the growing season, so it becomes a natural turning inward. Outer-directed energy falls away to be replaced by reflection and then creation.
Nature instructs us about the cycle of creation and letting go: Trees in autumn don’t stubbornly hold onto their leaves because they might need to wear them next year. Yet how many of us defy the cycle and hold onto what we’ve produced or collected – those decayed leaves in the form of old negativity, outdated attitudes, or fears? How can we hope for a healthy harvest next year unless we release the old, rest and start fresh with renewed focus?
The lesson of this season, more than any other, tells us to release the waste, the old, and the stale aspects of our lives in order to uncover all that is meaningful and fresh.
We all have feelings and experiences that make us think, “I wish this moment could last forever”. It is so human to want to hold on to special times and we often structure our lives hoping to create a reality in which that good feeling endures. But our expectations and preconceived notions of what we SHOULD feel, what we SHOULD need, what we SHOULD receive also get us into trouble. We also carry assumptions about what a friend, partner, son, teacher, or parent SHOULD be. Why does this cause trouble?? It doesn’t allow reality to exist. Most of the times our ideas of what people SHOULD be very rarely coincides with the ways they actually behave or express themselves. Autumn is the season that teaches us to let go. Try dropping a few of those old ideas (like leaves) and see how much lighter you feel. This will also allow space for new ideas and growth.
