I’m noticing a shift. It’s getting colder and the days are shorter as darkness descends.
I watch the yellow leaves. Gusts of wind lifting them off branches, they dance and flutter to the ground.
It feels like Autumn and it’s almost upon us, also signaling the coming of winter.
Last week, I turned on my heat, began bundling myself in sweaters, wore gloves during my morning walks.
Rather than hanging on my porch, I’m now working indoors.
And I feel the constriction that much of humankind is experiencing with the approaching winter.
Even with the Delta variant, we felt the freedom that summer and warm weather provided. Outdoor dining, concerts and events, picnics, hikes, get-togethers with friends and family.
And now, here we are. I feel the growing anxiety of the masses with the prospect of going inside, whether one has taken the vaccine or not. Breakthrough Covid, booster vaccines, new strains of the virus. We still don’t know how this will play out.
So many have experienced the trauma of isolating, quarantining, sequestering. Doesn’t it make sense that we all want freedom restored and sustained?
Yet, we need not contract.
A good friend recognized how years ago he was an adventurer. He traveled worldwide, exploring. Then he was hit by debilitating, degenerative mobility.
He saw opportunity in this. Instead of remaining focused on outward exploration, he turned his attention within. He saw that development of relationship with himself was his new adventure.
We, too, have this opportunity, and the coming of the cold invites us to go internal. To embrace that which we are. To explore, become acquainted and grow in love and acceptance of that which is, not only with what is happening in our lives, but that which is within our own individual, unique selves.
And, picture yourself cozy at home, bundled up, with a warm cup of tea or cacao engaged in an inner quest: drawing, meditating, journaling, dancing. You have the capacity to be your best friend, to listen, to honor, to learn from.
We need not cling to what was, the openness and sunshine of summer. Openness, sunshine and freedom abound in all of us as long as we allow ourselves to fall like the leaves and dance with the wind of what is.
