Yielding to the fall
Can you feel it?
Autumn is falling around us. We’re entering the final quarter of the year as of September 22 (vernal equinox) – and entering the season of wrapping-up. Reaping. Closure.
Granted, closure can happen any time of the year. But there’s something about the cool nights, longer shadows, and turning leaves that puts me in a mind to notice the pull of endings.
Creating closure
When you’re creative, learning to integrate the rhythms of closure can bring more depth and sustainability to your work. Allowing yourself to mindfully end a project helps you reap the lessons and celebrate the significance of your work.
Personally, I have a hard time with this. I forget. I find the creating (springtime) part of the process so invigorating, I sometimes leap in headlong without looking back. Not only does that leave piles of unfinished residue in my wake, it deprives me of the opportunity to honor my discoveries and the path I took to get where I am now.
Harvest
It’s fall 2009. At the moment, I’m bringing closure to:
- the belief that I have to run my business all by myself
- an existence without health insurance
- my Dream Office/Wish Kit class
- the content of my old 2008 Inspired Organizing program
- working 72 hours per week while withholding self-nourishment
I feel a mix of things as I notice where I’m inviting closure. I feel a few pangs. I’m moving toward good things, but it’s so powerful to notice where I’ve been.
Celebration
The other part of this process is acknowledgment and celebration. Although Thanksgiving isn’t for a while yet, gratitude doesn’t have to be reserved for one day in November.
In this season of closure and harvest, I’m celebrating past and recent accomplishments like…
- asking for and receiving a pay increase at my part-time job
- filling my upcoming Inspired Organizing class with 11 (12?) amazing women
- deepening several friendships and finding support there for my heart
- gaining clarity about my spiritual path
- making conscious, significant strides toward paying down my debt
I suppose there are some who prefer to stay in perpetual creating mode – forever summer – and resist the pull of reflection. I certainly do sometimes.
I invite you to notice – and share if you like -
- What’s ending in your work and life right now?
- What are you harvesting that is worthy of acknowledgment?
867 days ago,
Mona said:
I do feel the autumn thing happening and part of me wants to pull in and retreat a little bit. And the other part if nervous about that because in the past I’ve gone into “too much” retreating and then weird things happen with my emotions and physical body.
So I’m choosing to monitor my retreating and withdrawal and make sure that I’m happy with the levels.
What’s ending in my life/work right now:
- Feeling scattered. I’m getting much more focused.
- Working out of my strengths. There’s seriously NO point in doing this. It makes me irritable, scared, nervous, paralyzed and I’m not fun for others to work with when I’m OUT of my strengths. When I work in my strengths, I totally ROCK.
What I’m harvesting:
- Really getting that I should only be working in my strengths, and that if there’s something to do outisde of my strengths, I need to pass that to someone on my team who has that strength.
- Mental/emotional readiness for moving in early 2010 to a bigger home. Exciting to prep myself for upgrades.
- Working really well with my Sweet Bee and being team players working toward a common vision.
- Stepping into my power and feeling strong and assertive in my life. This is around leadership stuff and I’m definitely growing in this area. Love it.
867 days ago,
Tami Stackelhouse said:
As I’m healing from my fibromyalgia and getting my life back (yay!!), I feel as though my winter season is ending and I’m actually moving into spring.
@Jen – Looking at my office right now… what a MESS! The books and bookshelves are in the process of moving downstairs. Key words IN PROCESS. =)
What’s ending in my life:
Hmm. Yes, it is autumn in my office. The leaves (books & shelves) have fallen and have collected on the ground. LOL! I need to rake them up and deal with them. =)
As I sit with those two questions, the thing that comes to mind is that the season of “just being comfortable” is coming to an end. I sense that the season of growing and stretching is beginning. (Spring!)
What I’m harvesting:
- HEALTH, thank God! What a blessing to have found a program that is bringing my body back into balance and healing me from my fibro, including losing almost 50#.
- Excitement for the future. To have found this gift of health and to be able to share it with others. Every day I wake up and ask God who we get to share it with today!
- The ability to use my gifts and strengths and fully BE ME again. It really feels like I’ve been set free from being a prisoner trapped inside my own body (by the fibro).
- “Stepping into my power and feeling strong and assertive in my life.” I’ll borrow Mona’s words there because they SO resonated with me. That’s totally where I’m at.
866 days ago,
Trish said:
An Iowa Girl, I live where the seasons are Very Distinct. About 11 years I came upon a quote (which I have revised and made my own to the extent I’m quite sure it’s far its original home) that goes something like this:
In autumn, it’s as if the trees in all their splendor have flung their arms wide to the sky, proclaiming: ‘I’m CHANGING! And I just can’t hide it.’
Mmmmm… I’m in love with that juiciness.
866 days ago,
Meredith said:
What is ending this season?
I am leaving so much behind this season/this year.
I leave several unhealthy dependant relationships – one with corporate america (aka, cubeland) – another with sugar.
I am also leaving a lot of “known”, and moving into a lot of unknown.
I am starting a business. I don’t know how fast it will grow enough to support me. I don’t know how to be self-employed.
I don’t know how to live without a dependence on sugar. How to live without the utter highs and darkened lows. My emotional cycles are different – easier, but very different. Mindfulness helps, but my body is a bit of an unknown.
I did not expect to feel emotional certainty without donuts and sugary coffee drinks. But there it is.
All this is new – and I can tell that I am not through with the physical/emotional shifts.
I am building a new business for myself, and new friends, and new relationships. It seems like a new life – a life that I have longed for – with purpose and meaningful work.
I am looking forward to the quiet and inwardness of the coming winter.
And like Trish, I respondi to the call of the changing leaves. The wind thru their drying leaves crackles and sends shivery excitation up and down my spine.
.-= Meredith´s last blog ..A Conversation with Team Nature =-.
865 days ago,
jennifer said:
@Mona – Wow. Just.. wow. I honor you and your endings and celebration of what-has-been. And the powerful, compassionate woman you are.
@Tami – Wow, you, too. I can feel my heart swell and get all warm when I read about how you’re ending the comfortable and moving into the world and into relationship with others. What a gift you have to share – I’m so glad you’re finding your way.
@Trish – That quote gives me goosebumps. It makes me want to don a gorgeous orange dress and fling open my own arms! I’m changing! We’re each of us changing! Thank you for sharing that.
@Meredith – Sooo lovely. What remarkable endings you’ve chosen for your life up to now. There’s something about how you describe this here that feels so calm, even though it’s isn’t “all figured out yet” (that mythical place). I honor you and your journey.
Like you, I’m looking forward to the quiet stillness of winter.
Happy sigh. Thank you for spending time here on the blog – I feel so blessed to know you.
861 days ago,
Change « The Search Begins said:
[...] post included a listing idea from another blog: what we are harvesting, where we are finding closure, and what accomplishments we celebrate. [...]