Gratitude and Grief

The harvest season and the shedding season. The change we witness in nature can be an opportunity to reflect on our own transitions.

For me fall feels like a sacred time, a time to feel the collective gratitude and grief of the year. A time to honor all the stretching outward we've been through before turning inward to tend to our inner space in winter. As the natural world begins in the shedding process in preparation for winter, I am reminded that I too have parts to shed, fruits to harvest, and roots to turn my attention toward.

"Building our capacity for self (and other) awareness, becoming intimate with our bodies in ways that foster acceptance, and calling upon our maturation, make us more available for transformation. To know the landscape of our bodies, our experience, with intimacy and acceptance is to render us available to meet other bodies with compassion and empathy. It’s to make available again our creativity and imagination to dream a new dream."

– Karine Bell

This year's been a weighty one –full of shifts, boundary work, grief, surprise, and many calls to remember and reclaim ourselves.

Reflection Prompts

Have you changed this year?

How are you moving through this transition time?

What did you plant this year that is ready to harvest?

What is ready to be celebrated?

What are you needing to shed so that you can turn your attention towards your roots?

What do you need to store, keep safe for the coming of Winter and the turning of the year?

As the weight of this year cools down from the heat of summer, I encourage you to dedicate space for reflecting and honoring your experience. And maybe find someone to share your story with during this upcoming holiday season.