Gamar Hatimah Tovah
Every season brings new energy, new opportunities and new perspective. Spring is a time for growth and renewal, summer is a time of big energy – that’s why we plant in the spring, grow in the summer – because we need those long days of sunshine and heat to grow food.
And fall, well that’s a time to harvest, to reap and to ultimately let go. We cannot sustain the energy of summer year-round – we burn out.
Here in the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver) we had the longest stretch of sunshine I have ever encountered. Our summer started in late May. It was fabulous. Every long weekend was hot and sunny – perfect for a water skiing!!! But by late August the collective had had enough. We needed rain and cooler days. People around me were commenting on how they were looking forward the fall. In short, we need the seasons to change because they bring changes to our energy, our emotional states and our purpose.
The fall Equinox represents a time of letting go. Our bodies, like the trees, are a part of nature, its natural rhythms and cycles. It’s a time of reflection, introspection a time to reconnect with ourselves. Our religions reflect this changing time as well.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is a day when they are closest to God through their sacred rituals. It is a day of atonement when they fast and pray for forgiveness for their sins. It is a time for them to reconnect with their essence – who they are as beings. They wear white to the synagogues to mirror angelic spirits. Their goal is to abandon strife, jealousy, resentments to ask for forgiveness from their fellow man. To let go of what no longer serves them and to heal the pain they have caused other.
This is such a powerful practice, and it is no co-incidence that it happens in the fall at the equinox. Because that’s what fall is – a time to let go. A time of release. Our spiritual practices are there because they serve a purpose. We are human beings who get hurt and we hurt others through our actions or inactions. We then store this hurt as energy in our bodies, our hearts, our minds and ultimately our cells. It defines us. It shapes our beliefs and conditions our responses. If we don’t stop and examine our hurts and resentments and heal them through behaviours and actions like Yom Kippur, then they will ultimately make us unwell – emotionally, physically and spiritually.
So I invite you to take a page from this sacred practice and make a list of all those persons you have harmed and who have harmed you and make amends. Prepare to forgive and be forgiven. And then release them. Release them with all the love and compassion you would want for yourself. Like the leaves – let it fall away from you, dead no further purpose or action needed.
Redirect your energy inward in order to gather what is needed – what you seek for your life to move forward. Prepare for winter, prepare for 2024, prepare for what stage or area of your life you want to move forward into. By healing and letting go, you will have more energy and more presence to move into this space.
Gamar hatimah tovah.
