Autumn is a time of falling, and often the literal descent of the leaves and the sun, flowers and plants accompanies our own descent – into a feeling of sadness, loneliness, aloneness. This makes sense – if nature is descending, so will we – we are after all a part of nature. Yet, it’s a hard feeling to trust…to trust among other things that there is beauty, wisdom and relief in the falling, in the long exhale. Connecting this feeling with purpose, with a quiet, calm, wise part of you that you carry with you at all times, helps you trust the descent. The breath can also help you get there. Here’s a Pocket Poem by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Robert Bly that I have often returned to seasonally over the past decade or two – it’s a good one. I especially love the imagery of each leaf falling as if it were motioning, “no”. Autumn By Rainer Maria Rilke (Translated by Robert Bly) The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space. Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.” And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars in the loneliness. We’re all falling. This hand here is falling. And look at the other one. It’s in them all. And yet there is Someone, whose hands infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
