Autumn's Reminder

Autumn - how have I never noticed the natural clearing time that is Autumn?

I feel like I have missed out on Nature's great secret -- the Cleaning comes in Autumn, not spring. Spring is to Grow... Autumn is to crash down and tear out and make way.

(We Americans are so backwards)

Shedding, Dropping, Scaling back

Letting go, Releasing, Setting free,

Clearing out, Cleansing, Withdrawing,

Going back to the Source

.... All the work of Autumn as she prepares us for the inevitability of Winter.

It has occurred to me lately that if I use my yoga as just another place to hold on and achieve without steeping in the deeper lessons - if I get the pose but not the sentiment - then I am lost. Because, one day Handstand and

Hanumanasana

, cute clothes, packed classrooms, and exciting workshops will all be a distant memory. I will shed them with the increase of my years like red leaves finally floating to Earth. Bare bones, empty branches, I'll be like everyone else... still here, still with myself.

I hope this life of yoga will amount to more than mourning the passing of youth and a grasping reliving of the glory days. I hope Grace will guide me somewhere deeper, where the letting go is joyfully matched by a letting in and by Delight in all I've learned.

I hope that by the time the poses are dropping from me like leaves from the trees these lessons on compassion, beauty, wonder, joy, commitment, openness, forgiveness, and especially LOVE are so deeply rooted into the wood of my Being that they stay when all else goes.

Yes, this is more than just a physical practice I'd say. Much more.

This is spiritual training of the deepest sort.

May I be constantly reminded ... let go of the pose. Let go into Grace of Heart... "go there and roam."