Endings Lead to Beginnings

Fall is a great time to get outside

I love to be outside. Walking along a beach, tromping through the woods, puttering in my garden, sitting on the patio.

Being outside is good for my soul in all seasons but, at this time of year, the outdoors feels special. Like the whole world is secretly preparing for something big – something that looks and smells like a party (gosh! is there anything that can compete with the aroma of a crisp, blue-sky day?) but is more of a farewell.

Fall is beautiful and inspires beauty

Just as I was contemplating why this season calls to me like no other, I stumbled across a beautiful photo and poem by Sheena Rae Jibson on Instagram that contains a hint. (Please take the time to read the whole poem – it’s worth every minute – I keep reading and re-reading it).

It may have looked like I was lost
…
But lost
only in the overwhelming magic of it all —
how we flock to this season of death
of change
and celebrate it wildly
do you think it is because
we crave such change in ourselves?
Oh! To be so bold
for all eyes to see.

Fall is a season of death, of ending. In these few weeks, the exuberance of spring and summer draws to an end in a wild explosion of raucous, joyous color.

Fall invites us to celebrate change

Can you imagine if you could meet the endings in your life with similar enthusiasm? The little endings – your term in a leadership position, a fabulous long-weekend away, the perfect lunch with your spouse. And the huge endings – the cozy, sticky days of your child’s childhood, all the years you spent in your “forever home,” the career you embarked on in your early twenties.

I don’t know about you, but endings can send me slipping into melancholy that feels nothing like the wild celebration that Nature throws each fall. Perhaps in autumn Nature is inviting you and me to trust (truly, completely trust) that every ending is also a beginning?

If I can trust that, then it would be much easier to celebrate change with the wild, golden abandon of the birch in my front yard. To be profuse in my gratitude for the little and big “seasons” of my life that I am so fortunate to enjoy.

Fall invites us to embrace change with willingness and grace

Faith in new beginnings would also allow me to hold each “season” lightly – with the willingness and grace to let go when the time comes. To let go with the beauty and ease that my dear birch softly drops her leaves creating a lush yellow carpet in front of my home.

I think Ms. Jibson is on to something when she asks if perhaps autumn is so alluring because we “crave such change in ourselves.” Wouldn’t it be lovely to leap (or even fall) with abandon into whatever is next for us? Allowing the memories of what was to warm our hearts? Indeed, feasting on all we have learned from our journey so far and trusting that there is so much more ahead of us to learn?

Fall reveals the hope and freedom we can find hiding in every ending

To me the hope and freedom nestled in such a mindset feels as overwhelming as the beauty of the outdoors at this time of year. Take a walk with me. Pause in joyful awe as you watch Nature celebrating another ending. Then ask yourself if you could celebrate your next ending with the same wild abandon and confident hope that a(nother) beginning awaits your bold, beautiful self.

Because it absolutely does.

To learn more about seeing invitations to spirituality and mindfulness all around you, poke around on my website. Or drop me a note and we can set up a time to chat. There is nothing I love more than talking with fellow seekers who sense deeper meaning in the mundane beauty of this world we share.