Finding balance is the perfect medicine for our souls this month. If you are sinking down further into the September with each passing day, like me, then you may have also felt the slow shift that is occurring. Honestly, it can be a bit annoying at times, I think. Not really knowing what to expect from day to day. Or feeling like a ping pong being bounced between two seasons. Ready to embrace autumn, but not quite ready to give up the late summer. Wanting time to move on, while at the same time wanting time to stand still. Wondering what the weather or the mood of the day will be. Yep. September feels all over the place because of the shifting seasons. But, finding balance in the shift is just the medicine that helps us move onward.
September is a transition month for sure. And, honestly, I ‘m not sure if I’ve ever felt that slow shift, that transition more that I have this year. I think that I can chalk that up to the fact that I am really, stubbornly keeping myself in the moment. One day, it’s gray + cool + I’m ready for all things pumpkin. It feels cozy, I want to bake + cook, and I cannot wait until the leaves change. And then the next day, it’s sunny + warm. I can’t get enough of my balcony. I want to go out and get a drink and soak up the last days of light in the evenings, not quite willing to give into the ever-approaching darkness that lies just ahead.
But, in my determination to really experience the mood of the month, the slow shift of September, I find that I am exhausted from the constant shifting + changing. I mean, September… just decide already what season you want to be!
However, in all of this shifting + changing from day to day, I also find that I am totally + completely present in each day. And it’s only when I look back over the past week or ahead to whatever might come next week that I begin to lose my balance + feel the exhaustion of the shifting seasons.
That brings me back to the idea of finding balance. How is it possible that September could be a month that brings me balance when the majority of the days seem to move from one thing to the next and then back again? That feels completely unbalanced. And, yet, finding balance is exactly the medicine that this month offers. I just have to pull back, look at the bigger picture, and see things from a wider perspective.
Sinking down into the middle of September, I can do just that. Slow down. Pull back. And use these next few days to recenter myself and find a bit of balance.
Though the shift seems long + slow + never-ending, September draws me from late summer into autumn. I hardly even notice what’s happening since I feel like I’m being tossed back + forth by Mother Nature. But, as the middle of the month approaches, so does the Equinox – a day of perfect, cosmic, natural balance. And these days leading up the the Equinox, when we officially let go of summer + cross over into autumn, are the perfect days for finding balance. This is the perfect time to contemplate balance + to learn how to create balance in an unsteady, often unstable, shifty world.
Yes, I am feeling all the seasonal shifting vibes right now. But, I am also settling into the crazy balance that is September. Since one day it feels like summer, and the next day it feels like autumn, I learn to just go with the flow + let my soul also shift with the seasons. Once again, this act of finding balance in the shifting of the seasons teaches me how to find balance in my own life as well.
Finding balance does not mean that I rid my life of shifts, changes, and challenges. I cannot run from the need to release and surrender and change. Finding balance does, however, mean staying present + creating peace right in the middle of it all. It means accepting each day, each moment, as it is. Feeling however I feel about it, yes. Good, bad, peaceful, irritated, afraid, impatient, etc… But, in addition to feeling what I feel, in accepting what is, I find a sense of calm, centered, grounded, rooted balance right where I am. The transitions, the shifts, the changes, the uncertainty all feel intense in the moment. But, returning to my breath, keeping my pace slow, remembering the slow shift of September, all remind me that this is all part of the process. Just as nature is moving through her cycle, the year is turning on its wheel, the trees and birds and flowers and air are all experiencing changes + shifts + transitions, this also is how they continue on. This is the cycle of life. And, as a part of nature myself, this is also my cycle of transformation + evolution.
Nothing at the end of September is the same as the first day of September. Neither am I. I’m always literally a year older come September’s end. And, right now, as I drop into the middle days of this month, I plan to use them to slow down even more, to look around and see what changes I can see outside, and even more importantly for my own life cycle, to look inward and see what changes have been occurring in me throughout this month + throughout this year.
My focus right now is simple being present + aware of every little moment of this month. I’ll be watching the magic of the seasons shifting. And, in soaking up the bright sunrises before the dark mornings arrive, I will be finding balance right in the middle of it all.
xoxo. liz.
