Autumn is a time of losses and gains |

If we pay more attention to the details of nature, we will realize that each season of the year brings specific messages and invitations. However, many times we fail to see these signs because we insist on thinking that we are not an integral part of the environment.

Each season is an invitation to new postures and offers a series of lessons for life. Autumn is a time especially full of meanings that can enrich our perceptions.

This period comes just after summer, that season of warm, open, full-light weather when our movements tend toward the outside world. It is no wonder that to reach an intermediate station we need the “waters of March”, a persistent rain that gradually cools the weather.

Autumn is a time of transition between summer-winter temperature extremes. What is the main image that comes to your mind when you think of autumn? It is quite likely that most people will answer this question by remembering the classic image of trees losing their leaves. But do you know why this loss happens?

If the trees didn’t let them go, they wouldn’t survive the next season. The leaves would burn with the winter cold and, thus, the tree’s breathing cycles would come to an abrupt end, which would result in the end of life.

Nature once again shows the beauty of its wisdom: surrender is needed, letting go of what is no longer useful, to protect what is most important. What at first may seem like a loss is actually a gain: it gains more life, and arrives renewed for the next seasons.

What do you need to let go, what do you need to give up in order to keep going for the next cycles, to continue to grow?

Autumn is also the season for fruit ripening. It is time to even let go of the results of our efforts, so that new forces can generate other future projects.

During this time it is valid to observe which elements in you need to be sacrificed so that the most sacred thing in your life is preserved or rescued. Think of the word sacrifice from its etymology: it is a sacred office, a work, an action that has a sacred character, beyond the superficial, that transcends the banal, that has a greater meaning.

Open up to the birth of a new time

In the fall, it’s important to question whether fear and self-doubt are keeping your highest ideals from being realized. Reflect if some repetitive behaviors take you away from your real creative potential. Perhaps the time has come to become aware and assume an attitude of commitment to yourself, letting go of what no longer serves you, of what is blocking your steps towards the next seasons of your growth.

It’s not simple or easy, but it’s not impossible either. Like everything in nature, our change processes need time to settle in. Time to mature, until it’s time to harvest. Step by step, reflect on the unnecessary weights that may be delaying your walk, let go and let go.

I remember now the words of Tom Jobim: “It’s the waters of March closing the summer, it’s a promise of life in my heart”. Even if the waters seem to put an end to the best of the summer party, in fact, they are showing us that life goes on and new seasons will come! Believe: observing nature we can conclude that after the night always comes the day. Believe that it’s worth freeing yourself to let a new time be born.