To be truly present in the current moment requires our engagement with the past and future. Autumn offers us this lesson, year over year.
Autumn reminds us that the work (or play) we do today is a reference to the experience of Summer. What grew abundantly, what has ripened, what is ready for harvest? What did not produce fruit?
These questions require our engagement if we are truly to be present with the moment that is Autumn. What shall we put up for Winter? Will there be enough to sustain us through the cold?
If we do not engage these questions, we are not living in the moment at all. Rather, we are bypassing the moment and what is required for our deeper sense of belonging and wellbeing.
The ability to enjoy the present moment at the expense of the past and future is not a skill, rather it is a maladaptive behavior. Being alive, responsive, and engaged presence requires the ability to hold the present moment in context. To be here now, means to be everywhere while in this pointed moment.
Autumn reminds us of this every year, in vibrant celebration of the moment, while bridging the space between Summer’s growth and Winter’s rest. A rest, that cannot be restful at all without the consciousness of Autumn. Earth prepares for Spring by being in the moment seasons before the first seeds burst forth.
In Autumn we can practice embodying all time and space, hard work, deep connection, responsibility, the letting go and holding on, the mourning and the opulent celebration.