I want to pay attention. Because awareness is half of any inner challenge. I want to first, notice when the resistance comes, and then be present with it. Wonder about it. Talk to it. Right now and for a few weeks, I'm resisting fall. Mostly because that leads to winter. I enjoy fall, and spring. Summer and winter, not nearly so much. I don't like extremes. I'm happy that where I live is scenic and that we actually HAVE all four clearly recognizable seasons. But here I am, resisting. And winter only becomes nearly unbearable.
So, I wonder what will happen, if I pay closer attention to those feelings, honor them, disect them a little bit and just allow them to be without resistance. For as the saying goes, anything we resist, persists. There are gifts in every season. Visually it is nice to see the different ways the plants and animals behave in any given season. We're no different, but we tend to think we are. Fall is the time of harvest, and of cleaning up and putting away and of getting ready. A time of preparation. It's that way spiritually, physically and psychologically. We are feeling the shift, preparing for the change. Deep thinking and deep hibernation is coming. Sometimes it can be torturous. What if I approach it with gratitude for all it will bloom for me in the spring? All of the deep, pensive, pregnant feel winter brings, must sit, and gestate, just like all of the plants. All living things need to slow the growing and rest. That's what we do in winter.
In the fall, we prepare for the coming winter. Clean up, clear away the dried and dusty, finish projects, baton down the hatches. We do it internally and externally. Pay attention. And if you feel so inclined, share with me over the seasons your thoughts and what you notice happening within.
The deer are starting to return to my yard and eat my plants. I'm sure they are bringing their new fawns, and they too are trying to store up and prepare for winter. The geese are starting to migrate and I hear and see them fly over in formation. Mice are trying to take up residence in my home (sorry, not gonna happen), so the signs are there. Nights are cooler, days are getting shorter already, and leaves are already changing color. It comes whether I want it to or not, and it comes whether or not I am ready and whether or not my projects are finished (and let's face it, they never ARE all finished are they?).
So bring it on fall, and come on Old Man Winter, let's try the same cycle in a new way and see what gifts I can find. I don't know how successful I will be but I want to see if I can enter the changes with an attitude of gratitude and look for the gifts that come with any change. Some may take a while to see, but there are always gifts in change. I better adopt that as my new mantra, eh?
Ah, four separate seasons. Living in the desert brings mainly two: screaming-hot for half the year and wonderfully cool for the other half. By this time of the year, the screaming hot has toned down to merely hot, but what I wouldn't give to see my breath in the morning air, or go for a walk without coming home needing a shower. I find myself wishing for an open window and a refreshing breeze. I smiled this morning when I opened the door to only 71 degrees. What a relief. What a joy. What a welcome change! Now to baton down those hatches and wash the summer dust and dirt away. I love it.
ReplyDelete-dgbhang
I think the best thing about fall is the changing of the colors of the trees and bushes, I have burning bushes in my yard, and they are just beautiful this time of year with their bright reds, oranges, and yellows. The garden is mostly wiped out, just need to dig up the potatoes and carrots, thinking of taking the pepper and tomato plants that have survived and putting them back in the window at my dads where they started out this year until they complete their cycle.
ReplyDeleteBUT I HATE WINTER ;}