The leaves have begun their transition into a slow, fading form of life. Their yellow has been showing and some deep reds have started to appear. When they fall it’s only with grace that they reach the Earth, and this process of death is actually the beginning of renewal, not simply an ending. It is cyclical, as are the seasons of our own lives. We too, are changing with the seasons and letting go of the old.

 

Moving from one time in the journey of  our life into another chapter which may look vastly different than anything you’ve ever experienced before. To me, the most important part of transitions, new beginnings, or different chapters is about shedding the old, the stagnant and the unnecessary that doesn’t serve us.

 

“The inertia of the mind urges it to slide down the easy slope of imagination, rather than to climb the steep slope of introspection.” – Marcel Proust

Fall, naturally serves as a time of introspection as well as contemplation. With the Autumn Equinox, it’s a time to get clear on our changes and intentions. What have we learned in the past year, what do we need to shed? These questions allow us to come out of the rebirth phase with clear, and pure renewal. Otherwise, we simply come back without much changed. We move into a new part of our life, with the same habits for better or for worse. If we’re able to really self-reflect and get clear on what we are letting go of, what we want to come back, what we want to strengthen about ourselves, then we can forge ahead into the rebirth process feeling truly have renewed ourselves as the trees do in Spring.

 

For me, Fall is very much the ending of the year as my birthday comes to a head and I close out my personal year. It’s a very sacred, ritualistic and spiritual time for me. In the past I’ve taken trips (like my soul trip last year), gone to yoga retreats or spent days with my journal in solitude and silence, or into the woods.

 

“Spending time looking for what is missing in your life is futile; if you fail to look within yourself. When we challenge everything we believe we are, we reveal that which we never knew about our own selves.” – Nicolas G Janovsky

 

 

Now is the time to take consideration of things that have come to pass in this season of your life. To look at what needs to be released so that what may lie ahead has the opportunity to strengthen and flourish as you continue to deepen your relationship with yourself.

 

This is a time to reflect. This is a time of stillness. A time to take reverence in our bodies and our spirit, to feel more connected to our Selves than ever before. If we don’t take the time to know ourSelf, we will miss out on the most fulfilling and rewarding exploration of our lives.

 

 

I will leave you with Shakespeare’s sonnet, in which I believe he says precisely what I’ve said, only slightly more elegant 😉

 

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

-Shakespeare

 

 

 

In love and light,