Autumn: tis the season of letting go…

Dear friends, 

It has been a few weeks since my last post. The ability to put ‘pen to paper’ somehow left me in the transition from summer to autumn. However, it seems to be returning and I am happy to be writing again to you this week. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about the seasons. As we find ourselves in the midst of autumn - shorter days,cooler air, the cosy sweaters firmly back in the wardrobe - it felt very timely to find myself returning to the synagogue of my childhood on Tuesday evening for the first time in many years. 

Autumn is the season of harvesting all that has been planted earlier in the year. A time when we get to acknowledge all that we have created this year. To celebrate! 

It is also a time of letting go of all that needs to “die”. In nature, we witness the leaves falling, the trees getting bare, the death and decline of things. It is the time to begin turning inward, to reflect and consider what we might want to let go of. 

For me, being in synagogue was a wonderful opportunity to remember - remembering time spent here as a child with my parents, remembering my dad and others who have passed on, reflecting on what parts of my upbringing I want to let go of, and what I want to carry forward as I navigate my own spiritual path and cultural identity in adulthood. 

The experience was made even more poignant as the synagogue building is about to be knocked down, paving the way for something new - a new building, a new chapter in the synagogue’s story, a new chapter for the local community. It was time to celebrate all that the community had created (and will continue to create), and also a time for letting go. 

How are you experiencing this season? What is it that you might want to let go of that is no longer serving you? 

Perhaps you are going through some kind of transition in your life which requires you to shed part of your identity to allow space for something new to emerge? 

And, where did you triumph this year? What needs to be acknowledged and celebrated? 

As the nights draw in, and we want to be home more, it is a great time to dust off your journal and reflect on these questions for yourself. Journaling on these questions can be a wonderful way to anchor ourselves with the seasons, to fall in with the rhythm of the year and allow what needs to emerge to come forward. 

I would love to hear what emerges for you. 

Here’s to warm and cosy evenings (accompanied by the Great British Bake Off!),

Elle