.....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