Autumn Grief

The more seasons I see, the more I can relate to the Chinese traditional medicine idea that autumn is the season of grief. While it is undeniably one of the most strikingly stunning spectacles the earth puts on, so much loss is contained and expressed in that beauty.

The flowers have all faded, the seeds scattered to the wind and to be swallowed by the ground; the moisture has evaporated and leaves burnt by the sun hang on by a mere thread before casting themselves off to die and become mulch and eventually new soil; the critters all scurry about, gathering any last speck to tide themselves over, knowing pickings will be slim ~ some will be eating twigs and snow thru the dark months, others will simply shut down and curl into a ball, others will use this time to give up the ghost, saying goodbye to a life well-lived…

As humans, even if we merely focus our gratitude on the seasons of abundance past, we still must acknowledge the loss of that, and the scarcity and chill ahead….

So I fall, my heart dropping to the earth like everything else, and I feel every drop of grief ~ from the tree, from my fellow human beings…

Like this river, the grief washes on, and love fills every hole it carves. But it is grief nonetheless, a deep and sweet and bottomless sorrow for all that comes and goes….

But I would have it no other way, for this is how I love ~ endlessly.

Love and grief, lovers entwined…..