Reflection and Intentions

Autumn is here, and the major temperature shift we experienced really thrust me into the mood of the season! The swing from ninety degrees to sixty afforded me the opportunity to gather my warm weather clothes and start to retire them, trading shorts for hats and sandals for sweaters. This gave me a moment to reflect on summer and all the ways my cup was filled over the last few months.

Now we enter a more reflective time of year during which it is in line with the rhythms of nature to turn inward, to look back on what we’ve accomplished and set our intentions for how we want to move into this colder, darker and more isolated period of the year. It has taken me a long time not to automatically view these adjectives -- colder, darker, isolated -- as inherently negative, and indeed this is still an ongoing practice. I remind myself that there cannot be warmth without cold, light without darkness, company without solitude: yang without yin. By oscillating between ardent and algid we achieve balance. And so we wrap our scarves once, twice, and move bravely into the chill, perhaps a bit more subdued than we were during the expansive months of summer.

 
What have you followed through with in the last year? What accomplishments are you proud of? Take a moment to harvest your bounty by listing them out loud or on a page.

We are used to the phrase ‘new year’s resolution,’ and we’re used to that new year falling on January 1. But consider the insidious shift from summer to autumn. Do you notice a stirring? The wind picks up, the quality of nature changes. A change is a transition and a transition can be a fitting time to alter a habit, slay a dragon, set an intention. How do you want to move into this new year? What quality of your being do you want to enhance, with the observant and imitative nature of children in mind?