Seasons run into each other a bit in the East Bay since we have a mild climate all year, but it is definitely starting to feel and look like Fall. The air has a new chill to it and the trees and bushes seem to have woken up differently today, waving brightly with their day-glow reds, oranges, and yellows. The sun hides behind giant puffy, heavy clouds in the afternoons casting an ethereal light into the expansive sky. The leaves gracefully let go of the tree they have been attached to since they first became a bud last Spring, and off they go… falling gently to the ground at our feet.
I’m reminded how nature provides us with these cycles of seasons and countless other cycles throughout the months and years to teach us about new endings and new beginnings… about how to embrace change. Some examples include: the phases of the moon, day turning to night and night turning to day, the life cycle of a butterfly, the circadian rhythm of our biological bodies, and hormonal cycles especially make themselves known in the female body. All of these cycles in nature communicate to us that the cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth is a constant one that we will revisit over and over and over again. Nature teaches us that the only thing that you can absolutely know for certain will happen is change, and yet, change is one of the things we have the hardest time handling.
Here at Soularium Academy, we teach an empowered perspective on how to face change and encourage our students to mimic nature in how she gracefully faces change and surrenders to the transition that is waiting for her, knowing that a new beginning is on the other side. It is a powerful teaching for us to believe that every new beginning is also a new ending, and every new ending is also a new beginning. Drawing on the powerful teachings of Mother Earth is one way we help kids at Soularium Academy feel the support, see the wisdom, and become curious about listening to the answers she provides. This type of connection with the Earth is something our ancestors knew very well, but we have become separated and mute to communicating with her in this way. We aim to remember and cultivate this lost relationship and believe we will have healthier adults because of it.
I leave you with this poem...
Late October
By Maya Angelou
Carefully
the leaves of autumn
sprinkle down the tinny
sound of little dyings
and skies sated
of ruddy sunsets
of roseate dawns
roil ceaselessly in
cobweb greys and turn
to black
for comfort.
Only lovers
see the fall
a signal end to endings
a gruffish gesture alerting
those who will not be alarmed
that we begin to stop
in order to begin
again.
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