This is my favorite time of year. The trees look spectacular here in the Appalachian Mountains and everything is ablaze with color. Fall always gets me thinking about what needs changing, what needs to be dropped, and what needs to go dormant for a while.
It’s a good time to take an inventory of your busy schedule and see what needs to be changed, dropped, or let lie for a while.
- Are there tasks you’ve taken on that you really need to let go of?
- What commitments do you need to finish so you can rest more during the darker winter months?
- What about your office- is it cluttered with stacks of papers that need to be filed or sorted?
- Are you squirreling away things that you don’t need to save?
- How can you make a change with your desk or office so that you make some more space in your life?
The squirrels are busy collecting their nuts and people are busy preparing for holiday feasts. Same activity, different species.
Being a mammal you are more connected to the sun and seasons than you may realize. Your body may need more sleep or you may need more stillness through the winter hibernating months. This is a great time for you to figure out how busy you want to be as the holidays loom on the horizon. If you find this a stressful and hectic time, be intentional to do things differently, slow your pace and welcome the hibernation.
- Choose one thing you want to do differently this fall to prepare for winter.
- Choose one thing you want to drop to simplify your holidays.
- Choose one thing you want to go dormant for a few months.
The Celtic tradition of Samhain marks the cross-quarter holiday between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Soltice, often celebrated with bonfires to light the dark sky. Believed to be a time when the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest, people wore costumes to commemorate the dead along with the dying of the trees, and to honor their ancestors and celebrate the end of the fall harvest. The tradition has been carried into America as All-Saints Day on Nov. 1st and Halloween (all hallow’s eve) on Oct. 31st.
As you look towards the winter holiday season, the darkness calls forward your inner light to glow brighter. What warmth can you bring to your co-workers? What will help you remember your inner light in the midst of the busy-ness of your squirrel activities?
Here are a few quick suggestions as you prepare for winter:
1. Take time to walk and enjoy the fall colors
2. Light a candle each night and reflect on who helped you get through your day- thank the electrician who wired your office, the grocery store clerk who stacked your food, the truck driver who brought the gas to your local station
3. Cook a simple meal of locally grown vegetables or make a soup of the fall vegetables to celebrate the end of the fall harvest
4. Check on someone you haven’t talked to in a while to see how they are doing.
In this life we cannot always do great things, but we can do all things with great love.
Mother Teresa
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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.
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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.