Welcome, Autumn

Today, the cycle of the year moves toward darkness and cold, and we welcome the first day of Fall. This marks the beginning of the slow ending of the year, leaves falling, animals storing food for the winter, harvest celebrations, and anticipating the coming of the snow and cold.
For me, it is a time for gratitude for what we have sown this year, while also a time to reflect that things do end, nothing lasts forever. . .
Our lives have changed so much in 2010, a new state to live in, new jobs, new communities to join, new groups and friends and a whole new way of life here in Colorado. This is our first Fall here, and I am so eager to see what it brings. The apple tree in the front yard has had a overflow of apples, and we can them as fast as we are able, knowing this means applesauce for the whole year to come. and I am so eager to see what Fall is like here next to the mountains, and to greet the chill in the air knowing although it ends the cycle with dying, that new beginnings come when the void is created, and that focusing on the center allows the turning of the year to not leave our heads spinning.

“Have you ever watched birds soaring high up in the air without a beat of their wings, being carried along by the wind? How endlessly they seem to enjoy themselves! They are not concerned about death. If death comes, it is all right, they are finished. There is no concern about what is going to happen; they are living from moment to moment, are they not? It is we human beings who are always concerned about death - because we are not living. That is the trouble: we are dying, we are not living.” --J. Krishnamurti