.....humming

Yogis,
It has arrived! The season of giving thanks is officially here with its peak on Thanksgiving Day. Then as the last piece of pumpkin pie is eaten, the shift to buying and giving is swift. Let’s not lose any time.

Today I offer an activity to help get what I call the gratitude engine, humming. Gratitude is an energy with a unique vibration and resides within us. It is one of the feel-good energies, closely aligned with joy, awe and love and can be switched on at will with practice.

Here is what I am using this week as the switch.

Find a time when you can take a 20 minute walk, although walking itself is not the goal. This could just as easily be done with 20 minutes standing outside or even meandering through the house. Have your phone with you and camera turned on. Turn off the ringer and no checking emails or texts.

Look for something you like. It can be anything. An object, a color, something in nature……. Once you find one, take a mindful picture of it. Take your time. See it. Capture what it looks like and mentally say to yourself, ‘ I am grateful for_____’.  And move on. Keep looking and repeating.

I did this today on my walk to the beach. My first find was a changing oak hydrangea leaf. Beautiful. I am grateful for the changing colors of the leaves. Stepping onto the sand I see a horseshoe crab shell. I am grateful that there are horseshoe crabs in this world. And grateful for sand!  Looking up, the sun is beginning to peak from behind the clouds. Sun beams streak the sky. I am so very grateful for the sun!

Geese fly overhead. Grateful for birds. The boardwalk. My shoes. Ice cream cones….my trusty car…..the first sip of coffee on my return.

The more I look the more I find. My body feeling lighter and my heart beginning to hum. Gratitude connects us with the world around us. Finding the good that is already there.

If you decide to join me, I would love to see a picture.

Grateful for a warm shower,
SARAH

.....seeds, seeds, seeds

 Yogis,
The garden no longer asks for much of my attention. Watering has ended, pruning is unnecessary and clean up waits for spring. My focus now is on seeds.

We usually think of buying and planting seeds in spring. Yet there are many plants that drop seeds now which sit quietly on the ground through the cold, ice and snow. Patiently waiting for days to lengthen so they can send up their shoots. This is referred to as self-seeding.

The birds and wind are co-participants in this activity treating me to spring surprises, like woodland lettuce which appeared in my medicine wheel.  I also love to lend a hand, scattering them in empty spaces where I want to see them grow.

I have been collecting seed heads from echinacea, lobelia, boneset and cardinal flower in the yard, but also sneezeweed and mistflower near the river. Swapping seeds with friends and neighbors is another great way to have more natives in your yard….for free!

Will they all grow? No. It’s like a fun science experiment. All that is required is disturbing the dirt in an area a little and rubbing the seed head to get the seeds to drop and kick a little dirt or leaves back over. I have complete faith that some will grow. Others may wait a couple years, and some just weren’t meant to be.

A seed is tiny but filled with unlimited potential. Think of the acorn. She carries the blueprint of an oak tree that grows over 50 feet and lives hundreds of years.

In life every thought or intention we have is a seed. Filled with unlimited potential because thoughts become things. Fall, like spring, is a time of year to plant your life seeds. What is it that you want to grow in the empty spaces of your life’s garden come spring?

It reminds me of how reading or listening to something right before sleep imprints it in your mind. Winter is our sleep. I have complete faith that the seeds I plant will become things if they are meant to.

My job is to plant them.

Happy seeding!
SARAH

.....seasons

Yogis,
This was the week when fall truly settled in around here. The temperatures, smells, colors and sounds were like ads for the season.

Most of my life I wasn’t a fall fan. Instead of enjoying it for what it offers, I saw her as a harbinger of what lies ahead. Darkness and cold. I would say it has only been in the last ten years that I have begun to draw her in…..or maybe it is she who embraced me.

Like the calendar year, our lives have seasons.

We are born into the springlike energy of childhood and adolescence. Bright, carefree and playful. Years to grow and build a foundation where our biggest needs are to be nurtured and watered. Then summer arrives…….and with it the heat.

Careers, children, schedules and responsibilities pack our days. High energy as we strive and accumulate the cars, houses and lots of stuff. A time of fullness. The peak. Then, if we are fortunate, we get to experience fall.

I intellectually knew I entered fall a while ago, but for some reason it wasn’t until this year that it truly sank in. At 63 autumn has suddenly settled into my bones and I am now ready to honor her and the gifts she brings.

Like the trees I watch out my window, my colors are changing. My skin and the garden becoming dry. And life becomes a bit quieter.

Fall is melancholy….but in a beautiful way. A season in life where we are in the midst once again of big transitions. Retirements, downsizing, moves, grandchildren. A thinning of responsibilities which can feel sad but also exhilarating as new spaces open.

I watch the leaves fall as I fill bags and boxes with things I am ready to let go of. I hear a flock of birds overhead and as they head south, so will many of my friends.

At times I wish for an endless summer.  But fall does not try to pretend it is summer. Why would it?  I listen and lean in to love this season of life, just as it is.

And if I am fortunate…..I will get to experience winter.

In fall we drop our masks,
SARAH