Fall and the Seasons of Our Lives

© Imelda Maurer, cdp

This morning I turned the heat on in the house for the first time this season to take the chill off, as we say. Fall has finally come. The trees have lost a few of their leaves. The lawn is sparse with them, fallen before they revealed the fullness of their fall colors.

How many times have you and I read a person of high regard in religious circles, or heard a retreat director speak and compare our lives with the four seasons of the year.  Here we are in the fall of the year, and for me and some of my readers, the fall of our lives.  The typical rendition of this life/season analogy is that just as the leaves fall from the trees and die, the challenge we face in the Fall of our lives is to let go.

Now there is nothing inappropriate with the concept that in our lives we must let go in multiple dimensions of life.  Actually, we live through letting go throughout our life, not just in our later years. Initially, in experiencing birth, we “let go” of the unique and deeply intimate relationship with our mother in her womb.  I resist the typical understanding of “letting go” that is associated with Fall and the falling of leaves because it sends the message that the Fall of our life is defined, is circumscribed by loss and the subsequent challenge (as in ageist Aging and Spirituality lectures) to let go. Nothing is further from the truth. We experience the potential for growth and development throughout our life cycle – not just Spring and Summer but Fall and Winter also! The field of gerontology has confirmed this via a growing field of research. Fall is a time of fullness and richness!

Actually, nature gives us a similar positive message.  Those Fall leaves --- they do more than just fall from the tree and die. They spread awe and wonder, delight and joy as millions of people around the world view their majestic colors.  Those pigments have been a part of each leaf all its life. It is only in the Fall with the declining hours of daily sunlight and lower temperatures that the chlorophyll breaks down and disappears revealing the colors that have always been there!!  It is only within the later stage of its life cycle that the glorious colors become visible.  Think about that! Beauty, continued growth and development becomes possible and visible precisely because of our aging.

Another image of Fall as a time of richness and fullness was made obvious to me during a prayer  at a gathering focusing on aging. The prayer was a kind of litany about Fall. This one line has stayed with me and I smile every time I think of it:

"It is fall. Our barns are full."