Wake up and live!

Textures by Kim Klassen: 1402 Magic; 50% soft light; Let Go, 50% hard light

There’s something about Autumn that wakes up our senses and reminds us to live.
~Unknown

It was one of those Autumn days where you knew you just had to be outside. The warm sun teased our senses into thinking it was late summer with not a care in the world. But the leaves rained down from the trees with every breeze, reminding us the days are short.

With all of Autumn’s beauty, what it most reminds us of is that nothing is permanent. While the Autumn trees entice us with their eye candy for a while, eventually we’ll watch them release their leaves, letting them cascade to the ground…completing their life cycle. We are so excited at the sight of new buds in the springtime..full of hope and anticipation. We relish the lushness of summer…the season of productivity and growth. But Autumn is the interim season that reminds us that life is fleeting…and we should probably appreciate what we have in our lives because it may not be around forever.

The climax of Autumn color reminds us to live each day to its fullest potential, celebrating the good, releasing the bad and appreciating all of it as part of the cycle of living. But do we really live each day to its fullest potential? I don’t. I take for granted I’ll always have another day to accomplish tasks, connect with friends and family, make a difference in a life. I tend to think I have lots of time to change my thoughts/words/actions. I have so many excuses for not changing anything today….because there’s always tomorrow. But, although Annie thought the sun will come out tomorrow, that’s not necessarily the case. Like Autumn’s splendidly colorful leaves, one day they will be gone.

We can learn a lot from Autumn. One is to drink in the beauty of the moment…every day…and appreciate the opportunities in life we’ve been given. The other is hidden in the season’s cycle. Instead of holding on tightly to bitterness, resentment, anger and worry, we need to learn how to release them to the wind. Our fears need to drop like the leaves. The need for these things to have permanence in our lives needs to die. Learning how to let go of detrimental areas that de-focus our attitude is a necessary step to healing and living life to the fullest.

For it’s only in the realization of dying, that we can truly start living.

Linking up with Texture Twist and Texture Tuesday