Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Invitation of Fall


“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
 - Norman Cousins

This from a man who treated heart disease and arthritis with high doses of vitamin C and laughter, a man who dedicated his life to nuclear disarmament and world peace. 

As we move into fall, the air cools and the trees loose their leaves. There is much within our selves that begins to draw inward, pulls back toward our root. I am marking this seasonal shift with a 10 day cleanse, a process of shedding habits and foods that do not nourish me. This is my fourth cleanse and none of them have been easy. But it is amazing what shows up when you let everything that is not serving you and your body fall away: caffeine, alcohol, sugar, animal proteins, gluten. For me, what shows up is a sense of peace in my body and a lightness to my entire being. 

But fall is not only a process of shedding and removing, it is also about getting back to what lights the fire within us. What makes our hearts sing with joy. For me this always means making more time for writing and spending more time running, cycling or swimming in the beautiful natural spaces around the Bay Area.

So as the days shorten and you begin your own movement into fall, think about the invitation this season presents, the habits you can shed and the practices and/or activities you engage in more often in order to fuel the hearth of your heart.

Because the greatest loss is to live our lives as if habit. To stumble through our lives in a sequence of repetitions that is not unlike those of the half dead.