I would like to take credit for that line but … Lao Tzu beat me to it in 6th century BC. Turns out that he’s a bit of a smart ass. He also said that “life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them … that only causes sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally in whatever way they like.”
I have been trying so hard to follow this advice. As fall hits I am trying not to mourn the fading of the season of endless days and soul-nourishing sunshine. I am trying to flow into the next chapter with grace and ease but … I am a child of summer in my heart. Sunshine, oceans, beaches, flipflops, tanlines, cutoffs, 18-hour days jam packed with fun, roadtrips, and rollerskates. California flows through my veins, my lungs are full of salty sea air, and if my soul took shape it would look an awful lot like Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu.
But here’s the deal. I know there are things in my life that I need to let go. I have been resisting change and it has been causing sorrow. The delusion of summer is easy to sustain when happiness and hope and optimism float in pretty polychromatic bubbles on the gentle breezes offered by the season. Keeping them afloat in the darker days is tricky and they’ve begun to burst messily around me over the past couple of weeks. I have chained myself to the season of light, voluntarily stuck my feet in the cement of sunshine, and thrown my anchor deep in the heart of a love that has been a golden dream-like holiday. But the season is moving forward and I need to let go of my tenacious hold or be torn apart.
I need to use this as an opportunity to let go of the things that are not serving me well so that I can make space for a more solid version of myself again. It is time to let reality be reality and to let things flow naturally again. I need to stop lip-synching the summer vibe and allow my soul to make its own music again … music that can be heard by the universe. Even when the leaves turn orange, the sun sets mercilessly early, and the vampires of fall make their presence known.
gofasterrabbit 