Autumn's lesson

As the wheel of the year turned again at the end of September, through the festival of Mabon, the leaves have started to change. Nature has a lesson for us every day, and more obviously, every season. Autumn's lesson is that of letting go...

You'd be forgiven for thinking of letting go as a rule we ought to live by more closely, that it carries the expectation of not reacting, not feeling, and forgetting all about it; that it is a stick with which we should beat ourselves whenever we get caught up in emotions. When we look to nature for guidance, this is not how letting go works.

Trees do let go of their leaves. They spend a year growing, creating leaf buds, leaves, flower buds, flowers, becoming beacons of vitality and strength. Then they notice the encroaching darkness and cold, and their leaves change colour before they let them go, falling, swirling, tumbling to the ground, where the leaf litter provides habitat for the ecosystem, mulch for plants, and eventually decays, providing food for the ecosystem. After all the effort of creating and growing the leaves, they just let them go ~ and by letting them go, they continue to provide for the tree and its surrounds. 

It does happen. But it is not a sudden change! The sap starts to retreat in deciduous trees, and they begin to change colour. The trees sense the change in the air. They stop their production of chlorophyll, losing the brightness of their greens, fading back to the other, less potent contents of the leaves in their yellows, oranges, reds, and purples. Trees release a type of hormone to seal off the leaves, allowing them to drop.

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
~ Lao Tsu

And so it is with ourselves. Yes, letting go is good. It can serve us at the time of letting go, and later on. But it needn't all be a pressurised rush to throw things away. Each tree, and each leaf changes colour and then drops in its own time. It is a gradual process. We are allowed to take our time. Knowing it will help is the first step. You can let it change colour several times before you let it go.

Letting go doesn't have to be about not having a feeling or opinion, not is it about pretending something never happened or developing apathy. Rather than trying to push away something unpleasant, or pretend it doesn't exist, letting go is about acceptance. Accepting it happened, accepting it exists. This is not the same as approving of it or liking it. It is merely about acknowledging that life happens outside of our control, and that this doesn't have to take control over us. A simple, yet powerful practice, albeit frustrating at times.

"It's not a matter of letting go - you would if you could. Instead of "Let it go," we should probably say "Let it be."
~ Jon Kabat Zinn