Aligning with Grace

I reflect on how one season ends and another begins... Like a circle, it goes round and round, and we revisit the same places... I stand on the doorstep of the nascent fall season which invites a more vata-pacifing diet and lifestyle. It is a time of cooler evenings which come, oh - so suddenly and much more quickly that it did - just a mere few weeks ago... It is a time for hot teas, and root vegetables, and for soups and stews... It is a time for centering, and nesting, and going more deeply within... And it is a time for greater clarity... I thought of this, as I went down to the river one morning this past week, and was struck by how I could see so clearly to the bottom of the riverbed, even though the water itself was far from clear... After weeks of purging and cleansing and de-cluttering - knowing that there is still so much to do - I have started to downshift. Yes, there is much to do, but it does not all have to be done at once... I ease into the...

September has arrived, and we are slouching towards fall... I think of this, on my walk, as I examine the first of the leaves that have fallen from the trees, partially due to the drought conditions of this summer, but also partially due to the exhaustion these trees have experienced during the hottest summer on record... With the coming fall season we release the past season, ever mindful that it a time for both endings and new beginnings... Angeles Arriens, in her book, Living in Gratitude , writes about this time of year: "In September, we reenter our daily lives from a renewed place and move forward into full engagement. We are able to see more clearly our blessings and our learnings, and we experience the gratitude that naturally results. And we seek opportunities to bring our lives into congruence with the new perspectives we have gained..." It is also a time to recommit to goals, choices we may have abandoned or forgotten, and implement needed changes for the coming se...