A Season of Surrender



During the season of Fall we are reminded of the process of surrender and letting go through the continual shedding of the leaves on the trees. It seems that this process of surrender in nature can support us on our own healing journey of releasing what no longer serves us. It is through the process of letting go of old ways of thinking, feeling, and being that we make room for the truth of our higher self to emerge. In order to embrace a positive affirmation, we must release the opposite, negative one that we have clung to for so long.

Here is a poem by Joyce Rupp from her book, "The Circle of Life: The Heart's Journey Through the Seasons" that I thought supported this idea so well.

Falling Leaves 

O falling leaves of autumn, 
what mysteries of death 
you proclaim 
to my unwilling self 

what eternal truths 
you disturb 
in the webbings 
of my protected heart 

what wildness 
you evoke 
in the gusty dance 
of emptying winds 

what mellow tenderness 
you bravely breathe 
in your required surrender 

what challenge 
you engender 
through your painful twists 
and turnings 

what howl of homelessness 
you shriek 
with your exile of departure 

what daring task 
you evoke 
as you feed the hungry soil. 

O falling leaves of autumn, 
with each stem 
that breaks, 
with each layer of perishing, 

you teach me 
what is required, 
if I am to grow
before I die. 

May we each realize the deep truth, that it is through the process of surrender that we become whole. May we shed with joy and ease all that no longer serves, knowing that we will be reborn into a larger realization of who we are.

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