As fall is fast approaching, I can’t help but wonder what this season is going to bring. My heart and mind glimmer with hope and desire more ease. I yearn to settle into grounded power, wise stillness, and peaceful rest in letting go of what no longer serves as the next season arrives.
What Is Fall?
I look at the fall season as a metaphor for letting go. As the leaves turn their colors and get depleted of their nutrients, they naturally fall away, leaving the roots and trunk of the tree vulnerable and exposed to the elements.
Isn’t this what happens to us as we are learning to let go of what doesn’t serve us?My experience of letting go is feeling the contraction and pain of knowing that I am no longer being served, and because of that, I am being deprived of the nourishment I once felt.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
My humanness has me not wanting to be left out in the cold – exposed, unveiled, bare. My human habitual thinking, and need to be comfortable, has my mind running rampant with stories. In turn, my body responds with a sensation that invokes such discomfort that suddenly, I can’t ignore it anymore.
When I finally get the courage to let go of whatever it is that isn’t working for me, there is this feeling of vulnerability. Like I’ve exposed myself. A shedding of sorts. I have done this the hard way many times, and I’m sure you can guess what being unkind to myself might bring. I’ll give you a hint: it is not pretty!
Yep, that’s me: ugly-crying, not breathing, wailing uncontrollably and holding on for dear life… ouch, it’s even painful to think about!
However, when I choose kindness toward myself the exposure is held with such tenderness that the exposure can feel exquisite.
We All Have to Start Somewhere
We all have to start somewhere and this is what helped me learn how kindness toward myself was a way for me to self-partner and get the relief I needed.
It first came in small, easily digestible bites until I trusted myself enough to open the floodgates with kindness. What is it that you’re being nudged to slowly and kindly let go of? What – or who – is it time to say goodbye to?
A romantic relationship or a friendship? An idea, concept or belief? Even if a construct has nourished you once, it doesn’t mean it does anymore. Maybe it’s letting go of a limiting pattern that awareness has allowed you to see. There is an unexpected and delightful gift in your awareness!
The gift and truth of letting go in the here and now is acknowledging your ability to see, become aware and affect change in your life through your choices.
We can not change or make a different choice without first noticing what isn’t working.
But wait! Please let yourself off the hook here! There is no perfection. Do you think the trees that lose their leaves every fall season look perfect? Symmetrical? Beautiful even?
No! It’s a windy, swirly, messy process, right? But in the messiness of the trees and your heart, there is wisdom and beauty. It’s waiting for you to acknowledge it, see it and believe it. It’s called life – and it’s the awareness of your life that begins the process of setting you free.
The Cycle of Life
I see the seasons as being representative to the cycle of life and the cycle of love and relationships as we grow and develop. There’s birth, there’s the time in between, and then eventually there is death.
Gone will be the days of sitting on the porch basking in the summer sun. Then just as summer ends and the fall and winter seasons come, so too will spring and summer – when we’ll find ourselves dancing in the magic of our creations, renewed. As you watch the leaves on the trees coming alive, the buds and flowers promising fruit or bloom, you have the choice to sit in the seat of your awareness and experience what’s alive in you and for you.
To me, that is an indescribable gift of our divine essence.
Over To You
Are you willing to step into the uncertain process of shedding what isn’t serving you as we move into the next season that will be here to support you?
What does the fall season mean to you? What’s happened for you in the past or what new things have come to light for you regarding the fall season?
What is it that you’re being nudged to slowly and kindly let go of? What – or who – is it time to say goodbye to?
There is no right or wrong answer.
What happens between the fall season and the freeing blossoms of spring is where some of life’s most challenging complexities, but the most rewarding works, unfold. If it wasn’t for the cooled air and approaching frost, maybe we’d never be forced to stop and consider the things we’re being called to rid ourselves of.
Know that I’m here rooting for you in your letting-go process.
Blessings always,
Karen
