🍂 Sitting with the Season

This morning I sat out on the back deck, dressed like The Big Lebowski — robe, comfy clothes, coffee in hand. The air had that unmistakable bite: summer is gone, and fall has truly arrived. I can tell because the rhythm of my chores has shifted. No more cutting grass. Now it’s raking leaves.
I love this time of year. The heat has passed, but winter hasn’t yet settled in. It’s a threshold season — a pause between extremes. The leaves scattered across the lawn reminded me of one of my favorite mindfulness practices: Leaves on the River.
In that practice, each thought or emotion is placed on a leaf and set gently on the current. The river carries it downstream. No grasping, no pushing, no judgment. Just release.
Some leaves are bright and light — moments of joy.
Some are heavy, mottled, or torn — memories, worries, grief.
All belong to the season. All are carried by the current.
The trees don’t cling to their leaves. They let go, and remain whole. The river doesn’t hoard what it carries. It flows, and in flowing, it renews.

🍂 When We Don’t Let Go
The trouble with holding on is that it weighs us down.

Clutter of the mind: Old worries, grudges, and self‑judgments pile up like leaves clogging a stream. The water can’t move freely, and neither can we.
Stagnation: By gripping the past, we block the flow of the present. Energy that could be used for growth gets trapped in replaying what’s already gone.
Exhaustion: Carrying what no longer serves us is like dragging a bag of wet leaves — heavy, unnecessary, and draining.
Distorted vision: When we refuse to release, we start to mistake the leaf for the river itself. We confuse a passing thought for the whole of who we are.

🌊 The Benefits of Letting Go
When we practice release, something shifts.

Lightness: Just as the tree stands tall after shedding, we feel lighter, clearer, more open.
Flow: The river runs freely again. Creativity, compassion, and resilience return when the channel is unclogged.
Renewal: Letting go makes space for what’s next — new ideas, new relationships, new ways of being.
Freedom: We discover that we are not our thoughts, not our emotions. We are the witness, the riverbank, the one who can watch them pass.
Trust in cycles: Release teaches us that endings are not failures. They are part of the rhythm that leads to renewal.

✨ A Seasonal Reminder
Autumn shows us this truth every year: the tree does not mourn its leaves. It trusts the cycle. It knows that letting go is the only way to prepare for spring.
So as the leaves scatter across the lawn and drift down the river, may we remember:
Flow. Release. Begin again.