As you approach the new season, savor your summer treasures and give thanks. Choose to travel lightly, to bless and release any circumstances or relationships that no longer serve your highest good. Accept responsibility for your own life, your health, happiness, and authentic success. This life is yours to create, contribute, and celebrate. Cross the threshold with glad anticipation of the new experiences that await you. – Soul Salsa
September is one of my favorite months of the year. Although the heat lingers, there is change in the air as winds shift to the north. Rain came that first weekend and brought welcome relief from sweltering August. The arrival of September opens the door to new flavors, feels, and fun. Each season brings a new rhythm, which seems to be what we need.
As the pace picks up, it can be a challenge to slow down and savor this sliver of time. Nature abounds with metaphors for our lives, and autumn reminds us that letting go creates space for something new. We can start by letting go of hustle and heaviness and carving out some porch time. The cooler weather offers an irresistible invitation to step outside, go for a walk, or sit on the porch with a cup of coffee. These are times to embrace the Now, allowing nature to nurture and restore balance to our lives.
Autumn rituals set the tone for the new season and keep us grounded in the present. For me, these include bringing out the fall décor, listening to George Winston’s Autumn album, and making soup. Fall flavors and produce inspire my cooking and baking. I find comfort in the rhythm of these rituals, especially with so much uncertainty and imbalance in the world. Nature demonstrates that life flows on through change, storms, adversity, and loss. If we can keep things in perspective and remain steady, we can weather whatever the season brings.
I find myself being led back to presence and the power of Now. The thought train in my brain takes me backward to the past and forward to the future over and over. This is the cause of anxiety. As soon as that train leaves the station of Now, my energy and attention go with it. Our world has conditioned us this way, pulling us away from the present moment. We have whiplash from focusing on the past and fearing the future. We adopt or create a narrative that we feel the need to defend. We can see this happening very intensely right now, and it is easy to get caught up in it.
Present moment awareness stops the train and centers our attention. Our energy is pulled back in and joy arises. We discover the beauty and power of pure Being - the essence of who we are.
Presence is a state of inner spaciousness. When you are present, you ask: How do I respond to the needs of this situation, of this moment? In fact, you don’t even need to ask the question. You are still, alert, open to what is. You bring a new dimension into the situation: space. Then you look and you listen. Thus you become one with the situation. When instead of reacting against a situation, you merge with it, the solution arises out of the situation itself. -Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
This is my lesson right now, and I’m setting a new intention to practice it daily. I’ve noticed how happy and at peace I feel in the simple moments of the day. It’s the noticing that holds me in the present – the awareness of joy, beauty, and Love. This seems especially important as conflict and fear continue to rattle us. Being present where we are, as we are, opens us to power, understanding, and joy. It keeps us on track.
As Eckhart Tolle says, “Beauty arises in the stillness of your presence.” Be still and know that Presence, Power, and Peace are holding you. All is well, and all shall be well.
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