Experience the Magic of the Season
by Lorri Amsden
October is surely one of the most enchanting months of the year. Energy crackles in the air. The air turns crisp and blustery. Leaves fall from the trees to twirl at our feet before whirling off down the street. Nights grow cold. Morning meet us with a chilly nip. This is the time for celebration, a time of gratitude for life’s abundance as we go from a season of plenty into a season of want.
So turn off that television, step away from your computer, put down your cell. Unplug yourself and step outside. Look at the beauty right outside your window. Most of humanity has experienced their most moving spiritual experience in nature. How inspiring is a thunderstorm or the sight of a brilliant sunset? What emotions were elicited last time you caught the scent of an unexpected rainstorm or stood ankle deep in lapping ocean as the tide rose of fell? Did you feel the first cold nip in the morning as the seasons changed? Stepping out into natural world is a way of connecting with the Divine. The act of becoming aware of the glory of the natural world, of reconnecting with nature allows us to move within the slower, more harmonious rhythms of life. And It allows us to escape our hectic schedules and experience the magic: in the beauty of the setting sun, in the glory of the full moon, in the wonder of a hummingbird sipping nectar from a blossom.
Seasonal awareness, awareness of the solstices and equinoxes and reflecting seasonal changes in our own person practices, allows us to attune our own personal energy to the energy of the natural world. Eating seasonal, recognizing and celebrating holidays and interacting with your family, friends and community are all ways to acknowledge seasonal changes.
By celebrating these ancient rituals we attune with the magical tides and acknowledge the rhythms of life, death and rebirth, to harmonize with the world and to recognize that we are a part of it. As children our lives were sprinkled with small, magical rituals from nightly prayers to singing skipping songs, blowing dandelions to blowing out birthday candles. As adults practicing daily ritual allows us to experience a more magical life. Through ritual we can reprogram the unconscious mind so we have a different set of expectations about how the world will respond to us. Through ritual we can find our way to the places in our lives that exist in between the tick-tock of everyday living and the luscious places of dreaming, the magical places that connect us to the Divine.
There are many simple ways to incorporate ritual into your life: practicing meditation, keeping an altar, lighting a morning candle, whispering a prayer, silently focusing only on your breathing as you visualize what you want to accomplish during the day… all of these are examples of simple morning rituals and all of these work to pull your awareness from the mundane and shift it to the sacred. Through daily rituals we are able to recalibrate our energy and connect with the Divine.
Ritual doesn’t have to stop at home. Look at your workspace. What does it hold to remind you that you are a human being, not a robitron but a person, a human being living a tender, ecstatic, gorgeous life? I have a peacock feather and a bright red rock shaped like a heart and before I start my workday, I put the rock in my palm and whisper Namaste.
This is called ritual. It is a small ritual but never the less it serves to remind me that I not a robot, and that I am so much more than just flesh and blood, but that I am also spirit as are all those I work with.
Taking a few moments every day to engage in ritual allows you to become the spiritual being you really are and creating a personal ritual is easy. The important thing is to take something that is significant to you and to honor it.
The gesture could include lighting a candle, practicing a daily meditation, honoring a specific place either inside or out, burning incense, or incorporate icons obtained in faraway places. Nothing is, unless you make it so with intention.
So make your life sacred. Take time out to see your world. Don’t let the hurry and worry of life take the magic out of your existence. We as a nation have forgotten the art of conscious living. Unplug and take a conscious breath. This is your life you are missing. Put down that cell phone when you are out on your walk. Be present in the here and now, and stop multitasking! If you are eating, then push away that paper, book, phone and take a conscious bite. Be present and enjoy the flavor and texture of your food.
Allow yourself to revel in the rich taste, to savor the decadent scent. Give your spouse your full attention during your conversations and be there in that moment when you send your child off for school or play. When we shift our awareness back to the things that matter, it honors and allows them to regain their importance in our lives and makes a way for the magical moments to exist, the moments that make life worth living.
