Hello, Fall!

It’s finally here. 🍂

The season of cooler mornings, changing leaves, apple cinnamon everything, candles lit before dinner, fuzzy blankets, good books and cups of tea that somehow taste better when there’s a chill in the air.

I wait for fall every year. And every year, it seems to come with an invitation.

Not just to buy a pumpkin candle or make a list of all the things I want to do before the last leaf falls.

​But to pay attention to the life I’m actually living.

Because I can say I love autumn.

I can save pictures of cozy rooms and imagine slow mornings with tea. I can make lists of books I want to read, movies I want to watch, recipes I want to try and places I want to go.

But none of that means I actually lived fall.

And lately, I've been thinking that the same thing might be true about the rest of our lives.
​

There are two times of the year - autumn and waiting for autumn.

Are You Actually Living the Life
​You Say You Want?

I know. But think about it. We know so much about the lives we want.

We want more peace. More time to ourselves. More connection with who we are. More everyday moments that feel good.

We want to read the books. Drink the tea. Sit outside.
​Journal.

Light the candle for no particular reason. Watch the sunset instead of realizing later that we missed it.

Wear the fuzzy orange socks. :)

We want lives with enough room in them to notice that we're alive.

And yet so many of those things somehow become part of the life we're going to live later.

​After we get everything done.
After things calm down.
After we heal this.
After we fix that.
After we become better at managing our lives.
After we finally become the person who knows how to live the way we keep imagining.

​I know that last one particularly well.

For a long time, so much of my life was about healing, changing, fixing, becoming.

Even the things I loved could turn into tools for getting somewhere else.

Self-care could help me heal. Journaling could help me change. A ritual could help me become a better version of myself.

​And eventually I started wondering what if some of these things don't have to get me anywhere?

And what if I don't have to finish becoming the woman I want to be before I'm allowed to start living some of her life?
​

Maybe We Can Start with a Season

That's one of the things I love about fall.

It gives us somewhere small to practice.

We don't have to figure out how to change the rest of our lives on September 22. We have today. And tomorrow.

And a season stretching out in front of us.

​So maybe this fall, you practice having the slower morning you've been saying you want. Maybe you drink your tea without doing anything else at the same time.

Maybe you stop saving the good book for when everything is done. (did someone call my name?)

Maybe you notice what the trees are doing. Maybe you make the soup.

Light the candle, just because. (me again)

​Watch the movie. Take the walk. Sit outside for ten minutes and do absolutely nothing useful.

Maybe you check in with yourself in the middle of an normal day and ask Am I here?

Not - Am I healed yet? 
Not - Am I doing enough?
Not - Am I becoming the person I'm supposed to be?

But we should ask - Am I here for the life I'm living today?

Because creating a life that feels like you doesn't begin with having to change your whole life.

Maybe it can begin with practicing the life you want.

One morning. One evening. One cup of tea. One autumn day at a time.
​

​So, Hello, Fall. 🍂

​I'm glad you're here. And this year, I don't just want to love you. I want to live you.

I want to get to the end of the season and know that I was here for it. And that's what I want for the rest of my life, too.

So here's the question you can take with you into this new season... 

Are you actually living the life you keep saying you want?

And if the answer is not quite yet, what's a small piece of that life that you could practice today?

​And if you're not sure what would make your autumn feel more like the life you want, I made a free 8-question quiz to help you find out what your days may need more of this season. And maybe what the rest of your life needs more of, too.

Take the Autumn Quiz 🍂 ​

See you next time!