Standing on the sidewalk we shift side to side, ever watchful for the bus around the corner. My kids play with leaves and rocks as their book-bag straps constantly fall out of place. Our routine has changed. I inhale a new scent, feel a colder temperature and hear different sounds. The turning of seasons shifts my focus and all of me is grateful for it. I have wrestled through a difficult summer and found life laid it’s heavy packages at my door. But I have grown weary of opening them. 

Newness calls me. It speaks to a part of me that rarely gets spoken to in this suburban mom-life. The part that longs for adventure and change. One that enjoys a fresh take on old things. And so I cling to the change of seasons like I cling to my coffee mug every morning, it’s a gift to be opened. One that I welcome wholeheartedly! For the possibility of it to be filled with joy lulls my weary heart in step with fall’s cadence.

I don’t know what this season will bring exactly, but I know its glimpses. I know pumpkins and costumes and colors of autumn. I know brisk mornings, leaves crunching and sweaters and cider. I don’t know the highs and lows of relationships and world news that will come, only a lot of the in between days of umbrellas and soccer games. And so I sit in the belly of shift. What will fall bring to my table? Better yet, what will I bring to it? 

We can make all the plans in the world but we all know, things change. We can live spontaneously day to day, but then we might not reach our goals. So...what’s the middle ground? Maybe we can dream a little and in dreaming set our intentions so that by the end of Autumn, we have cultivated a harvest that is pleasing to us and our families.

Want to join me on a guided attempt to make this new season burst with goodness?

Take a deep breath and inhale all the senses around you. Imagine yourself at the end of fall, cold weather wrapping around you as you snuggle deep in something soft. Now, think about the memories you made that bring a contented feeling. The goals you reached that made you feel accomplished. The needs you were able to meet that made others feel loved. The care you took in loving yourself well. 

What were they?

Now, let’s work backward from there… 

Grab your journal to answer a few more guided questions:

What do you want your fall to look like? 

What are goals you’d like to accomplish?

What are experiences you’d like to have?

What needs do you have to meet for your family, yourself or others?

What sounds life giving to you?

Finding your true north in both prayer and meditation, you may feel a lightness at certain answers. When there’s a lift in your heart to the ideas that come to you, jot those down. For they are like little treasures waiting…

Once we have taken time to think about how we want to feel and what creates those feelings, then we can plan. We then implement the things that bring us life and in so doing we give joy more space to grow, so that the life draining things take up less. 

Holding those gems both with passion and flexibility, next communicate them to yourself in your journal and your calendar. If it involves others, then by all means share it with them. I think you’ll find it easier to create the harvest you want by communicating it with those lovelies you want at your table.

My hope is that by setting intentions for the fall, we will draw closer to the beautiful dreams inside us, both simple and big. May the shift be blessed with peace and excitement, for the coming season can bring you much joy! If just by merely taking a glance forward and working backward from there.