This past week we welcomed the fall equinox and with that, fall has arrived up here in the northern hemisphere. Whether you are welcoming in fall or, in the southern hemisphere, the start of spring, take a moment to pause and reflect on what this particular season means to you.
I’m visiting family in the countryside, and yesterday had a lovely walk. I set off and made my way through a rustic arbour that is a simple enough structure made of old wooden pioneer fence posts but that somehow always manages to make me feel that I’m embarking on a grand adventure through a portal to a magical world. And it is! The sheer beauty of this property in rural Ontario, Canada astonishes me every time I am here to enjoy it.
I walked through the portal…
As I walked I passed clusters of lovely Michaelmas daisies (from the aster family) with smaller white flowers and also some with the slightly larger beautiful mauve coloured ones.
As I walked I passed lovely clusters of Michaelmas Daisies
Below is a simple meditation from my 5 Ways to Celebrate the Seasons of the Year guided workbook, available in my Free Resource Library. In the guided workbook there are meditations and journal prompts to celebrate and reflect on each season of the year.
Receive the password to my Free Resource library so that you can download your free gift 33 page PDF guided workbook on 5 Ways to Celebrate the Seasons of the Year and also download other free resources. To receive the password to the free resource library please visit http://www.fionaharbour.com/library
You may wish to enjoy the meditation or even to go ahead and write your own meditation to reconnect you with the earth and the universe.
Meditation for the Fall Season
I am gathering
What I have grown
I am rewarded
By my efforts
For this I give thanks
And I am humbled
I am grateful
As the colours on the trees change
The leaves so beautiful in their
Reds oranges and yellows
I can feel such gratitude to them
For their beauty
They are not sad
They rejoice
I revel in the their celebration
Of Autumn
I am here
In this moment
Of beauty
And splendour
Yes, I am here.
Guided Journal Prompt: Fall includes not only Thanksgiving (here in North America) but also preparations leading up to the busy time of the festive holidays. In the later Fall we can start to feel over scheduled and feel the stresses of the busy-ness of this time of year. How will you practice exquisite self-care throughout the fall season and look after yourself to replenish your well-spring of energy and keep healthy?
After my lovely walk yesterday, I gathered some self-heal flowers, which had been growing right under our noses and can be used in making teas or tinctures. Like goldenrod which grows profusely in this area, self-heal is a local flower which has healing properties, hence the name “self-heal”. I have probably seen self-heal my entire life and admired the purple flowers but just recently found out its name and that it can be used to make healing teas. My mother asked me to gather some of the self-heal flowers for her today and I wait to see what she will do with them once they are dried.
For me personally, fall has always been a season that I associate with learning, maybe due to so many formative years spent in returning to school in September. And for me as I learn more about the herbs, plants, and flowers that grow around me in my own backyard and at my family’s property and the healing abilities associated with these plants, it sparks my naturally inquisitive nature and the yearning to learn more. Making your own teas, tinctures, and health elixirs is self-empowering and something that I will definitely do more of in the future. Now, I continue to feed my need to learn through reading, watching the videos of favourite herbalists, and also just by doing.
This fall it feels like it will be perhaps an early and long winter. It seems to be cooler sooner than usual for this time of year and we have already had our first frost. As I reflect on the fall season, what it means to me, ways that I can be even more attuned to the earth and my authentic self, and the things that I’d like to do in the next few months, I feel thankful. I am thankful for the splendid colours as the leaves on the trees change colour, for the goldenrod blooms, and for the cooler weather, perfect for walking my dog. And I am thankful for this time that eases us out of summer and allows us to mentally get ready before the season changes once again. I am thankful for fall.
Receive the password to my Free Resource library so that you can download your free gift 33 page PDF guided workbook on 5 Ways to Celebrate the Seasons of the Year. To receive the password to the free resource library please visit http://www.fionaharbour.com/library