Fall has always been my favourite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale. – Lauren Destefano
Autumn is a magnificent season, the grand finale before winter’s bareness. The trees offer an extraordinary show, before they let go of their leafs, and I find it fascinating. We struggle so much with letting go, we fear it, we dread it, we postpone it for as long as we can…what if we learned something from the autumnal trees? They inevitably release their leafs, with no fear, only with confidence and grace. They show us that it is only natural to let go of what is old and dry, what no longer serves us. How do you feel about letting go? Do you feel attached to people, objects, habits, or do you find it easy to let go of something or someone? What do you fear about this process?
As always I choose what to write in this newsletter inspired by the sessions with my clients. We often discuss about letting go and in the past few weeks many of my clients are indeed letting go of old patters – for real! They are taking distance from unhealthy situations and people, and that made me wonder if there’s a connection with this season, autumn. It was Nietzsche who talked about autumn as the season of the soul, and indeed it conveys reflectiveness as well as rebirth: summer’s vigour has come to an end, nature is loosing its vitality but, nonetheless, autumn presents us the grand finale. We are prompted to reflect on what is valuable and what isn’t, what it is that we care for and what we need to let go of.
The word autumn comes from the latin autumnus, past participle of the verb augère, which means to increase, to enrich and to grow. And in fact it is also the season of the harvest: we gather provisions for the winter and we collect the teachings of past experiences. That’s how we close the cycle, together with letting go: we take in what is nutrient, warm, protective; we focus on the abundance of the harvest by embracing anything that makes us stronger and more resilient. The invitation is to cultivate gratitude for what we harvest as well as for what we need to let go of – in fact the latter could be something that has been precious and helpful in the past, but it is just not anymore as we have outgrown it, for instance.
Autumn is a vehicle for change and inner awakening, if we allow it.
I suggest a meditation with open eyes. Sit in the park and observe the trees, their grand finale. Notice the leafs that are still hanging, those that are falling down and those that have already fallen; how do you feel when observing each of them? Be aware that every leaf that falls down is moving its energy to the ground, it is not lost, rather it enriches the ground with precious nutrients that will in turn enrich the ground and the trees. Feel how – when you let go of what no longer serves you – you actually let go of a potent energy that can be released back into the earth. By doing so you close a cycle, an unfinished business, so that you can feel renewed and ready to welcome the new buds that spring will bring you. You can now tap into you inner strength and energy, you may feel more confident. You may feel grateful for the beauty of nature’s grand finale, as well as your own’s.
