Today I am an Autumn Tree

While looking at the world around me, I like to zoom in on certain 'scenes' and look for ways that they parallel my life or 'personal growth' at the time.

I've been participating in Brene Brown's 5 Week Authenticity Workshop - and those of us participating just completed our 5th and final week. The process has been worth every moment of time invested and I've enjoyed learning to make authenticity a daily practice, committing to cultivating emotional courage, nurturing true and honest connection with others and travelling with a whole-hearted beleif that grace, joy and gratitude are all qualities we're entitled to and not rewards randomly passed around at the whim of others.

Based on the comments that have been made over the last 5 weeks via the Comment Boxes ~ this experience has touched us all in different ways, though we seem quite united in our appreciation for the process as a whole.

And as I sit with the question that, for me, always follows experiences like this - as I contemplate the "Wow, that was awesome -- now what?" ... I find myself falling back on my pattern of observing all that is around me in search of something that will mirror back the way I feel.

Today, I have decided that I feel like a tree in Autumn. A deciduous tree that stands in glorious, colourful majesty.

An Autumn tree that is fully aware that its work in the past two seasons is now done and that it has earned the right to be thanked for its past achievements, admired for the radiance and brilliant hues that signal it is time to welcome a new season - one that will require rest and self-nurture and time to prepare for its re-emergence anew in Spring - and accepted for what it now must do to sustain itself and ensure that it is always ready to do what it is on this earth to do.

An Autumn tree doesn't fret and wonder if it's going to be okay with everyone else if it allows the diminishng sunlight and cooler night-time temperatures to change the colour of its leaves.

An Autumn tree doesn't clutch and grasp at its leaves, fearful that letting them gently spiral to the ground is somehow a failure and representative of an inability to master its craft.

An Autumn tree doesn't lament the leaving of birds and creatures who've sheltered and nested within it over the past two seasons - and take their migration and/or hibernation as a personal reflection of its own ability and worth.

An Autumn tree stands majestically in all its wondrous glory - a symbol that time passes, functions change, roots are deep and authentic wonder is simply programmed into its DNA.

An Autumn tree is an Autumn tree no matter who stops to notice it, no matter what comments are made about it, no matter what's going on in the world around it - it is what it is. And it requires no validation, recognition or permission to fully serve its purpose - season after season, storm after storm, sunset after sunset.

Today, I am an Autumn tree. A deciduous Autumn tree with colour and splendour. And as I look around me ~ I see many Autumn trees on my path.

Enjoy the crunch of our leaves beneath your feet as you pass our way ~ they are symbols of past accomplishments that have gotten us where we are today ... and hearing them sound as you walk by is like music to our ears.

As we all head into the season of rest and nurture ~ think about what you might release in gentle spirals in preparation for your re-emergence when the Winter of your personal soul-searching has passed.

And know that whatever you choose requires validation and permission from no one but your Self, because choices that grow from authentic roots always serve the best interests of everyone involved ...