Seasonal shedding in life…

… the falling away of what no longer needs to stay

I arrived at my new home, to be greeted with this view. The dying autumn leaves, now detached from their branches, were creating a wet sludge underfoot.

Like shedding leaves, my cloak of identities was falling away — it was a season in my life when I was being stripped bare of all that had been familiar.

The death process of fallen leaves begins as smelly brown sludge and then the magic begins! The decomposing stage is preparation for the next season of life. When autumn leaves fall to the ground, bacteria, fungi, and insects break them down, returning nutrients to the soil. The tree rejuvenates during the winter months and the cycle of new growth begins. Like that tree, when we experience loss and change, rejuvenation awaits us.

A deciduous tree will display a glorious show of red, pink, yellow, and orange in autumn, but what appears as beauty is the sign of impending death. The green has changed, the leaf’s life source has been shut down.

Sometimes, in life, we hold onto remnants of fading beauty; in a changing relationship, in a career that no longer fulfils us, or in an unsatisfactory lifestyle. We resist letting go and allowing winter renewal.

Is it time to let go of your attachment to a person, living environment, limiting belief, or unhealthy well-being?

Your current life position will impact how to prepare for an autumn season of decomposition. Be kind to yourself and acknowledge your needs during the transition stages of seasonal shedding.

For myself, I now view change with the perspective that allows the falling away, like autumn leaves, of all that no longer needs to stay. And I remember there are always people, and experiences that remain constant — as the evergreen trees behind my home, and the sun that rises every morning.

Allow an autumn season in your life to be a time to detach from what you no longer need to be, do or have.

Trish Beauchamp; Counsellor & Life Coach

trishbeauchamp.com