If we were to live our lives like the seasons we would naturally flow with the energy of life.

So why then do we fear change? For many people there is a comfort being in the same old routine and familiar surroundings, for others there is a need to change but afraid to take that next step in getting to where they want to be in their lives. For others, they are forced to change as a result of things being out of their control.
What if we lived our lives in only one season, would we then grow? No we wouldn’t, we would never learn to let go like the leaves in Autumn, to allow new growth in the Spring, to flourish in the Summer and to be renewed in the Winter, we would remain stuck in an endless array of everything staying the same.
If we simply looked at each season as an example of what way our lives would look like if we allowed the natural cycle of life to flow, maybe it would help us to accept that change is necessary and vital in our lives,just as it is in Nature.

So let’s start with Autumn, for me it is a time of making way for new growth, it is a time to shed what has gone before us, only taking with us the nourishment and memories of our past. If we decide to hang onto anything that no longer serves us we don’t allow room for new growth. Just like the trees gently bidding farewell to the leaves that coloured their branches, we too must sometimes say good bye to the people and situations that helped us grow and develop. For some of us we will have bid farewell to our loved ones this year as we hang onto to their memories so tightly that it almost suffocates us in grief.
When we allow ourselves to sit with the grief, accepting that no amount of holding on to the pain will ever change what has happened, we can slowly accept that their love in our lives helped us to become who we are today but we may still feel the void in the physical loss of the person.

But what if we started to gently focus on just the love and the happiest of memories we shared with that person, if we were to slowly let go of our pain!?
Having lost my Sister in 1998 and then my daughter in 2004, I have sat with my grief in solitude and also shared my experiences with others. Until I was ready to accept that my grief kept me in a cloud of sadness, I was enveloped in an energy of not growing or allowing. I know that both my Sister and my daughter certainly didn’t want me to exist in this way, but to live every day honouring them by actually living my life to the fullest, isn’t that what they would have been doing if they were alive and well!?

As I contemplate my memories-not only of my happy ones, I also remember the sadness and loss. I honour it in my life as it taught me to appreciate the people that are still present in my life and to make every day a day where they know I love and value them. In doing so, I found that I changed my perspective on physical death and on me as a person which I am now stronger than I had ever realised.

My greatest gifts in life are the people that love me. Though no amount of acceptance will truly fill the physical void of the ones that has passed from this world, like the Autumn trees I am willing to let go of the tight hold I had of them and allow space to grow the love for myself and the people still here. In doing so, I am not forgetting my loved ones in Spirit, but choosing to know that their love is eternal and is growing in my life in a different way. I now have a connection to them that doesn’t needs words or physical touch, it is a connection between souls that is bond that can never be broken. I like to believe that their love touched my life for a reason and that their input helped me grow that little bit stronger by just being apart of my existence.

I am a like a fine old oak tree gathering wisdom and knowledge. My branches -the many areas I choose to grow my energy in – family, friends, work, writing, community, learning,  and the leaves are the people and situations I am fully engaged with presently. As the Autumn visits us, I often meditate on the changing colour of the leaves, some are people and situations that I have learned from and are no longer present in my daily life and fall away gently and easily, others we hold on until the wind decides to release them from our lives so that we can create space to be.This is when we learn that letting go is sometimes not always our choice.

I remember some years ago explaining to my children after their Grandad passed away and they tried to make sense of him being in ‘heaven’  as his body was laid to rest in the cemetery. They looked at me with curious eyes wanting me to help them understand how he could be in two places at once! I simply explained that our physical body is like an overcoat and that our real and true self uses it to live on the Earth, when it is our time to leave this physical plane, our coat worn out, we return to a place where no coats are needed. We become invisible love. We are all energy and love is eternal.
Love & Blessings to you all
Sharon