Get ready to LET THAT SH*@ GO...

It's September 1st, woo hoo! The start of cooler temperatures, summer is almost over and the beginning of all things that must end... Trees, flowers, fruits, and even the wildlife all remind us that there will always be endings and most definitely beginnings. So now, we must embrace endings.

I LOVE Autumn. I mean, it's my favorite time of year. I absolutely love 55 degrees. It is literally my favorite temperature to be outside, sunny, cloudy, it doesn't matter, as long as it's 55. The leaves start to change, the mornings are cooler and everything seems to slow down a bit in nature. If we're listening to our bodies, they want to slow down too. It is the way of the earth and there is a beauty in the simplicity of it all. Embracing our body's desire to curl up and get cozy is incredibly beneficial for what lies ahead....

So how do we go about embracing the endings in a beautifully balanced way of being? Read on....

Step One: Being aware of what we truly need in our lives creates the spark of creativity, intuition, and belief that burns from our passion in life.

Step Two: Sitting with our shadows. Yes, the parts of us we do not like at all. The parts of us that aren't always stellar, and claim, "It's not fair!" or "Why me?" or "How come that can't be me?" or even worse, "I'm not worth it." These are all the dark voices that claim stake in our hearts and create the chains that bind us to a life of settling. A life where yes, we know what to expect because we're already living it, but it's also the stagnation that slowly kills us on the inside; robbing us of all our passion, all our desire to live fully, on purpose.

Step Three: Share it... You must share your gifts with the world or they aren't gifts. There is no way to live fully and I mean a FULL, meaningful existence unless you give your gifts, share your passions, and create sparks for others to grow their life.

It's three steps to climbing the mountain of meaningful existence. It's growing yourself as a human being. We're not called human doings. We're aptly named human beings for a reason. When we see that our value IS our existence, all of sudden we receive the gift of GRACE. We realize that it is of the upmost importance to live a meaningful life for us. When we are able to grasp this awareness, things change in our lives exponentially. Letting go of all the other stuff, the noise, the past, and keeping our promise to our hearts is how we begin to truly understand.

I love Autumn because it also reminds us that we have no control what so ever. We may think we have control, but we do not. There is no way of knowing everything you think you need to know, so take a moment, breathe deeply, sit with YOU and all that you are, every part of you and experience the silence of peace. It is the way to being fully alive. When you can come to that practice, to what you are used to and the discipline of that practice, everything in your life will change. Autumn reminds me to let that sh*t go so that I open space for all the good out there.

I once wrote a question in my journal that changed the way I think about things. I asked the question, "What does your wise heart want you do?" I wrote three things:

1.Rest 2.Believe in myself, and 3. Stay Open.

That last one hit me like an artic blast of wind that woke me up completely from my habit of staying small. Staying in this comfort of a life where I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do, not what I was meant to do. Keeping my heart open gives me permission to be completely open to new opportunities, to my heart's desires, to everything that I was meant for.

You can do the same.

And when we begin to speak of grief... the universal quicksand that keeps us hurting for far too long a time, we see how that too is letting go... Autumn is never meant to force us to let go our of loved ones memories, or let go of the love we have for them. Hell no! We are only to let go of the hurt. Let go of the regrets, let go of the thoughts that drag us down. I was raised in the shadow of a deep hurt that happened to my father. He lost a little boy to cancer. Felix was only 8 years old. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child. Honestly, I do not think I would have survived if I lost one of our children. I'm so grateful we have witnessed our children grow into these amazing adults. My father never spoke about Felix. We would visit his grave every Christmas and put a wreath on it. I used to sit next to the grave sometime because I liked the little lamb that was carved into the stone. I always felt comfortable with Felix. I still do. I don't know how my dad handled that grief silently - and maybe he buried it so deep, that he carried that boulder for the rest of his days.. and yet here I am, sharing with the world that we don't have to do that. We don't have to carry the pain. We can release the pain and keep the love. I miss my dad and my sweet mom has aged ten years in the last two months. I often wonder how in the second part of our lives we endure all the loss... and then it hits me. Once again, my heart says to me, stay open. Keep going. You got this. It's ok to cry, to fully cry with every cell of your body. It's ok, to FEEL with every cell of your body. It's ok, because it is a part of a full life. You are not alive and fully living unless you have embraced grief, sadness, failure, and every other perceived negative out there. And ya know what, my heart knows more than me. :)