Learning from the Seasons

I really should have taken a photo each morning out my front window since March and time lapsed the amazing changes in colors, and foliage. It’s been a remarkable thing to sit each day and mediate and let my mind wander while taking in the stillness outside that window.

Fall is my favorite season. It always has been. It’s really like the “new year” for me: the theatre season, the concert season, the audition season, the school season - they all begin now.

And now, not so much.

We remain in our ongoing intermission.

At least this intermission has made sure that the long bathroom lines are attended to before the lights flash to get back to your seats.

So, what do I learn from fall now? What do I learn and carry forward with me in the present and then not forget when things begin to stir again?

I am learning stillness.

I am learning how to stay and remain present.

I am learning self-acceptance.

I am learning self-care.

I am learning no apology. (for those who know me, that’s a big one!)

I am learning how to gracefully release.

Mother Universe, Mother Nature, however you view the natural world, truly teaches if we slow down long enough to pay attention.

In the “new year” of beginning our artistic seasons, we want to ramp up and start the process, feed the creativity, start the momentum again.

What if, allowing to gracefully release what was, allows us to settle into what is, and in finding that stillness, will prepare us for what will be?

No apologies.

No excuses.

No trying to please.

No “yeah, but what if”.

No “yeah, but what happens when.”

Watch the colors change. Feel the air shift. Observe, and respond through the integrity of your creativity, and your artistic possibility.

Mother Universe has such grace during this season. She releases, she lets go, knowing the releasing creates a momentum deep within, that will flourish when it’s time.

How could she possibly hold on? hold back?

Our artistry, our authenticity, our integrity, our creativity, our craft, our value - all of it - reveals, observes, and creates momentum. It finds a different modality, a different shape, a different name, a different location. It is still there. HOW we do it, WHY we do it, defines us.

How we do anything, and why we do it, defines us. The location does not.

Explore the possibility of gracefully releasing, knowing that in doing so, you are mirroring what the fall season has recognized always: there is only momentum when there is change. Change is crucial to becoming. Becoming is crucial to your NOW. Now needs your breath and your attention, because you are worth that attention.

This “new year”, this “new season” is a different one. It is shaped unlike any new season has been in my lifetime. Yet, it is still new. Yet, there is still so much to learn. And, there are whys and hows to be discovered, to gestate, & to reveal.

To learning; to discovery; to stillness.

With fondness & fierceness,

Susan