Change and Letting Go

I am blessed with a new landscape from my studio and kitchen windows where I have been watching thousands and thousands of oak leaves, acorns, and pine needles fall to the ground. Over the last two weeks, the activity has been constant. One by one the tiny pieces fall into place and create a blanket of amazing texture and color. It is a huge, dramatic change created by small steps - a mirror, hopefully, of this season of change.

I have made big strides. They have been deliberate and long awaited. With hard work, both physically and emotionally, the goal was to move to a quiet and peaceful place where I can create and regroup. I am happy to say I have finally made it! But as I walk among the leaves trying to identify the different oaks, I find myself looking to identify other things I can change. What is not serving me? What have I missed? What can I let go?

Not all change comes from effort, however. Some things just come to us. They may be welcomed as gifts or spurned as misfortune. Disappointments, unexpected health issues, and event cancellations out of my control have hit hard during this move. But if I stop to look at them from another perspective, I see that they, too, have brought me to a slower more contemplative place. And that was, after all, what I am seeking.

So I observe change both deliberate and unexpected - the things I go for and the things that come to me. I continue to see what I can make happen, but will also try to embrace the unexpected with more compassion and gratitude.

Seasons are always about change. Actually, a year's cycle is constant change without definitive lines. But Autumn brings us a dramatic reminder to let things go. Perhaps that is the gift this season - to let go of expectations and embrace all change with more gratitude and a wider perspective. Observe. Let go. See what change can teach us.

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