Permission from the Trees
These last few weeks I have been taking a painting class called Treewoman, presented by one of my Intentional Creativity® colleagues, and it is a journey into nature...inner and outer. How the two realms come into alignment for me, for us, when we choose to journey with nature to receive messages and be in connectedness to all things.
This class came at the right time as I was feeling my deep desire to honor my sacred tools, and I have been guiding you towards doing the same. For me, working with nature's rhythms, patterns, gifts, and especially cycles is an intrinsic part of my work. Nature is my guidepost for how I design my life and work. And yet, I realized through some of the guidance in the class, that I was bringing a lot of nature "inside", both in my internal landscape and literally inside the studio. I wasn't spending as much time, out IN NATURE. So I went out to be with the trees and observe. And that has been my practice and intent for this moon. I invite you to do the same, as all of nature, and especially the trees are in a different cycle than they were just a month ago.
So what are the trees..and many animals doing right now? They are preparing for going dark, going into hibernation, storing up so they are nourished through the winter. Most importantly:
They are letting go.
The trees are releasing their leaves, right after providing a brilliant light show, with ease and grace, and without "story" of how they need to hang on to those leaves that have served their purpose. The trees know that those leaves have a secondary purpose during their death and decay phase, and that is to nourish the soil, for what wants to emerge there. The trees know that if they hang onto those leaves, the tree would die or not be able to receive the nourishment needed to create new buds, fruits, berries, and sustenance the following spring. The trees know they are in a continuous cycle with no beginning and no end; just being what they are here to be.
So if you won't give yourself permission, and you certainly do not need my permission, allow the trees to give you permission to let go of that which has served its purpose.
What leaves are you willing to let fall?
And once you do, acknowledge them, thank them for what they have provided and taught you. And then be willing to take some time to just nourish and sustain yourself, without having to "do" anything. Because doing nothing is doing something. And for the tree, even when it's at rest, it is naturally and without effort doing what will be needed to birth its next creation of buds in the spring. I really encourage you, to use the late fall and early winter to take some rest, go internal, and really feel into what wants to come through in the next cycle. Let go of the idea that you have to have every single goal accomplished by December 31st and a whole new set of goals figured out on January 1st. That is the modern world's way of making us feel less-than, already "behind" and overwhelmed. Take permission from nature to flow in cycles. Once you get into that flow, it truly is magical. Once you begin to design your life and work in this way, there is no more scrambling to meet some arbitrary timeline. Working in this flow means I already know what is coming into form in January and have known since the Summer Solstice, so that I may take this rest time, that our bodies, minds, and spirits naturally want during these darker, more internal times of winter.
I invite you to join my private circle on FB, where I will speak more deeply to what is ready to fall, die, and decay, to sustain life. We will be sharing together on what just naturally wants to fall away, but that perhaps we are gripping onto.