Fall is back.

Shorter days.
Longer nights.
Short rays of sun. Long drawn out shadows.

Soon we will be setting back the clocks. We will become domesticated. We will step back in time.

Autumn has always been my favorite season.

In the hurry, hurry, rush, rush, push and shove to get ahead world, autumn gives us permission to fall back.

To fall behind.
To linger in the gray space between summer and winter.
Between abundance and scarcity. When just enough, we discover, is actually more than we need.

Between who we are for show and who we are in private.
Between bathing suits and fleece pajamas.

That is where the real us can be found.

To “fall behind” is often seen as a bad thing. A failing. An inability to keep up. Keep up with what; I am not sure.

Autumn is the reprieve.

While spring may get credit, for thrusting out new life; may be heralded as the season of renewal, autumn is where that new life is formed.

In the quiet, reflective space offered us by autumn, we are able to recalibrate and reassess.

We are given permission to go inside of ourselves. To gather what we need to sustain the truest version of who we really are.

In autumn, retreat is not seen as an act of cowardice, but a step towards rebirth. A time to take inventory and stock. Not just of provisions needed to sustain us through winter, but to sustain us at a core level through the seasons that lay ahead.

Falling back is a star collapsing into itself and giving birth to a universe.

Autumn is a time to deconstruct and refortify, to disconnect and reconnect, to die and be reborn.
It is a season of contradiction and balance that helps to ground us and enable us to regain our equilibrium.

In Autumn we cocoon ourselves up tight. Take with us the things that mean the most.

Prepare to go dormant.

Hold our breath, wait for the stars to realign and form new paths and constellations.

Wait for a new universe to be formed.

Wait to see who we become.