Here in the Irish and Celtic calendar, the season of Autumn began on Monday, the 1st of September. Although the weather is still very mild, the mornings are misty and some leaves have already started to fall. We are moving into a period which helps us reflect on impermanence and on the fact that all things change. Our meditation practice reminds us that there is only suffering to be had when we try to fix things solid, or hold onto them, like the long days of summer or the memories of times past. We instinctively prefer permanence and how it tells a story of a solid, single identity. Instead, in reality, like the seasons, we are always changing; things come and go in our lives. Nature lets go and moves on. Maybe we can learn from that.
If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one;
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange
(For love itself may need a time of sleep),
And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change,
Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep,
The strong root still alive under the snow,
Love will endure – if I can let you go.
May Sarton, Autumn Sonnets
photo of the Barrow river at Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow.
Mindfulbalance 
This post has coincided with a poem I have just written Karl. I thought you mught lime to read it
Change
03
SEP
2014
44 Comments
by journeyintopoetry in Poetry Tags: attachment, change, clinging on, letting go, nature, personal war, resistance to change, victim Edit
I sense a closing in the air,
a tying up of loose ends
in readiness to say farewell,
to let go,
and I feel sad.
Summer is now just a smile
that returns to my face
on grey dreary mornings.
Maybe one day I will
accept change without
judgement or fuss,
without attachment
as nature does,
without a need to cling on.
Or maybe I will just
keep spinning the
wheel of suffering and
remain a victim
in my own futile war.
😊
Sorry! I didn’t mean to include the top bit;; that’s the entry in my blog. Anyway the title is ‘Change’
And Ive just noticed my typos! Apologies yet again. My excuse is that I have two cats sprawled across me! 😊
Hi Chris, the poem is lovely, and nature in autumn gives a model of letting go and allowing/not fighting which we find less easy to do. Hope you are well this bright Sunday morning
Thanks Karl. Yes it’s a beautiful morning! Im hoping for my husband’s sake its not too warm; he’s doing the Great North Run!
Hi Chris,
It looked lovely on the TV. I hope he gave Mo a run for his money,
Karl
Hi Karl,
John gave Mo quite a run for his money, completing it in 1hr 46 Mins. Not bad for a 67 year old!! 😊 And he raised money for the MS Society in the process so all good.