UpBeat Living: Autumn Renewal |
Autumn in many regions is a time when leaves turn brown, gold, and red, then fly in showers from their moorings. When I lived in upstate New York, we would drive the Taconic Parkway in the third week of September. It was a fairyland of Fall colors, an ethereal visual feast. In northern climates, Fall is clearly a time when the landscape completes a cycle that began in the Spring.
Oddly, this natural cycle fits with the study of numbers. In numerology, all numbers reduce to a single digit, 1 (one) through 9. The number 1 means new beginnings, and 9 means completions of cycles. Every time you complete a cycle, you are automatically in new beginnings. Every 9 leads immediately to a 1. In the Julian calendar, we assign September the position of the 9th month, a simple 9 in numerology. We assign October the position of the 10th month, or a 1 in numerology. This would mean that completion of cycles is always a tendency in September, with new beginnings tending to following in October.
In southern Arizona, my home for 20 years, vegetation and energy both agree with the numerical cycles. In the heat of the long summer, people slow down. By September, gardeners are getting back into their landscapes, cleaning up the plants that have become gangly or expired. People start to feel more energetic in the cooler air, gearing up for new beginnings in the upcoming month with a numerology of "1". In latter September and in October, the plants shoot up and make new starts, almost like a second Spring. Everything becomes green again, starting the new cycle.
In Judaism, using the lunar calendar, the year 5760 began on September 10, 1999. Judaism treats the first 10 days of the New Year as a very special time of introspection and renewal, called the High Holy Days. During this time, people are called to review their past behavior and attitudes. Individuals consider what T’Shuvah, or turning around, they will do in their lives. What worked and what didn’t? When were we acting according to our real values, and when were we out of integrity? Some consider this a strong time for completing old behaviors and initiating new patterns. Some make a list of "New Year’s resolutions" during the High Holy Days.
Old cycles come to an end and new cycles automatically begin. Leaves do it, numbers do it, and people do it. Is the rhythm of the year running human nature?
My colleague Lilia Bumbullis is a professional writer and owner of 10 wildly twisted fingers. She wears big rings that are actually finger braces. Lilia has had many joint replacements due to rheumatoid arthritis, which, in the past, forced her to travel by wheelchair. Now she is walking again, and chasing after an active child she birthed in 1996. To me, Lilia is a champion of completions and new starts. She cheerfully assigns her doctor the "fault" for her motherhood. Truly! In the mid-1990’s, when her arthritis had been all-demanding, the doctor advised Lilia to "get a life". When she went in for her next check-up, pregnant, the doctor said, "I didn’t mean, get a Life!" Lilia traded in her wheelchair period as she embarked on her parenthood period.
Recently, I spent a few days working with Lilia in the hospital. She was at her completions and new beginnings again. Her body had decided to grow a large, rare type of tumor. It was non-malignant but interfering with standard body functions. The surgery released "junk" tissue the body no longer needed, ending a cycle of low-benefit growth. Lilia saw this as symbolizing some aspects of her life that she has been putting behind her. She feels freer now, physically and emotionally. And she is back to chasing the 3-year old Emma around the house, now with more energy.
The morning Lilia was to be released from the hospital, I sailed in with real cappuccinos and pastry, proclaiming, "Room Service!" We lifted our cups and joyfully toasted to Life, and to the infinite possibilities for release and renewal. We toasted to completions and new beginnings, to the wonders of Life yet to be discovered in whatever newness we might be daring enough to embrace.
Virginia Woolf wrote, "And all the lives that ever were/ and all the lives to be/ are full of trees and changing leaves." In your own life, do you see changing leaves? How is your Autumn renewal going? And what new growth will you have this year?
Kebba Buckley speaks nationally on stress management and energized living. She is a coach, spiritual teacher, and energy therapist, as well as the author of a handbook on how to trade in your stress for energy.