Autumn's Gift

The call of Autumn is strong now. Her cooler days, the rising fiery colors in her leaves, and her fragrant damp earth seem to touch something that lies sleeping within me. I can feel her beauty brighten while simultaneously the life force within the land starts to ebb, retreating back to its source in the soil beneath my feet.

The color pallet of the land dims as the once vivid hues are replaced by muted tones, and gusting October winds whip the tree branches bare over my head. At this time of year the Earth's energies that were bright and spritely in spring and summer, shift to a more somber tone punctuated with bursts of vibrancy, every fiery red-orange-yellow leaf a final homage to the manifested dreams of summer.

One of the blessings of Autumn is its gift of grounded presence. While on one hand we feel lifted up by the vibrant foliage all around us, we also simultaneously come face to face with the silent bedrock of our life that we never notice until the cacophony of our surface life dies away. At this time, the ground beneath us and space our lives inhabit, become palpable and the truth of our lives takes on a clarity that shows us the realities of our existence.

With the light of summer receding at our backs, we gaze into the approaching darkness of winter. We enter a time when we're asked to slow down and root into the Earth at the place where we find ourselves. Quiet, like the heron in the shallows, standing in our inner stillness as it rises up into our awareness, we wait for the dark time of the year lurking just over the horizon.

Standing on this threshold, with a strange mix of relief and apprehension, I am fully aware of the space my life inhabits here on this land. From within this place of in-between I listen to the trees. Their message is clear...

Accept that which has arisen. Release what wants to go. Embrace where you are.

In the woodland, the silence, thick with presence, vibrates along the silky strands of the spider's web. The memories of summer gone by travel down through the roots of the trees and into the soil where it's added to the terrestrial fusion of life within the land all around me. I feel like a witness to this sifting and sorting of all that has manifested since last winter. My being is held within this place, and with the conscious knowing of the physical and energetic space my life inhabits, I too, become aware of just how much a part of it I really am. I am being sifted and sorted through, too.