Simple Ways To Embrace The Season Of Fall & Find Direction

Looking for fresh direction & ways to savor the Fall season? Here are simple ways and soft reminders of how to embrace the season you are in.

Pressing pause on all the decorating posts for a purposeful minute.

Because, while I do think planning ahead now in order to curb Christmas chaos for all things holiday decorating…(before my favorite faux garland sells out or these beautiful hanging bells and this brass bow tree topper – just to name a few) is important...

I also believe savoring the moment and the season we are currently in, is something worthy of parking on and pondering.

So, if you’re looking for fresh perspective on savoring the beautiful season of Fall and in need of a little direction?

You’ve come to the right place friend.

Because right now?

We are taking one big deep breath in…and exhaling.

One more time.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Sometimes just taking a deep breath in and slowly exhaling it out…is the first step in savoring the seconds we are currently in…along with the season.

Need help remembering to just breathe?

On your next walk outside, why not pick up a bright leaf, bring it inside and set it on the kitchen counter, nightstand or desk…as a reminder to just breathe.

Need more?

Come with me…

How To Embrace The Season Of Fall & Find Direction

For starters?

It starts with letting Fall be Fall.

I’ve shared previously about a similar thought here in this post, at the end of the Summer, about letting August be August.

And now?

I am reminded…

Fall is Fall for a reason.

Let’s enjoy her.

Here’s how I am currently learning to savor Fall for her beauty, wisdom and grace that she offers up so freely.

And also?

Learn from her.

Breaking it down into a little acrostic because they’re fun. 🙂

F – is for Following Nature’s Lead

Fall invites us to follow nature’s lead.

If willing?

She leads us from the fun in the sun of Summer days and sweeps us forward, into learning motion of new found rhythms tucked inside the gentle folds of small decisions of the choosing to go softly into Fall.

Fall is not bossy or forceful.

Instead?

She is soft, often silent, patient, adaptive, intuitive, colorful and…calm.

Yes, Fall offers her graceful breeze and transformation by inviting us to join her in the transferring of our energy into new directions and ways…that only her season can present in unique form.

All in attempt to still us, before we are wrapped and wound up tight, in Christmas chaos collision plans and while most tend to be activities we love…they sometimes (often times) exhaust us.

Fall in her full form…will eventually lead us and leave us…looking forward, yearning for the blanket of quiet that Winter whimsy provides…but is not here yet.

Yes friend.

Fall is purposeful.

And if we aren’t careful…we could miss this rest stop along Mother Nature’s road trip.

So instead?

Let’s follow her lead.

Let’s not be foolish and ignores her cues for calm.

And instead, accept her invitation to inhale her grace and beauty…so that we can exhale her praise with a posture of peace.

Praise for being a beautiful season sent to us…to prepare us into a posture of restorative calm before the crazy is here.

But how?

A – is for enjoying Access to What Fall Offers

You already know that Fall provides us with gorgeous landscapes of changing leaves and fire sky sunsets and sunrises.

But what if?

What if we just took MORE note of the access, that the season of Fall provides us in her scenes and soft surroundings that she offers?

I don’t know about you…but these days are widely spent in my car.

Driving our daughters up and down the highway and around the bendy backroads to destination who knows where, sports field X.

Which means?

All this driving, is providing me with a front row view of the season unwrapping herself.

One slow gift of surprise, bending and peeling her layers back, as she will eventually give way into the wintry mix direction of where she will leads us…

But right now?

It’s her turn.

Fall humbly and beautifully provides us access to her quiet nature…if we are willing to see her before she passes the seasonal baton.

So, if you find that you are in a similar season of running kids around –

Why not plan to leave 15 minutes earlier than you need to?

ENJOY the ride…and accept the ACCESS of opportunity to soak in the scene from the windshield differently.

Leave early, so that when you start to notice the changing leaves dotting the blue sky…you have time to pull over and breathe it all in.

Receiving restorative calm and storing her gift, to help carry you forward.

My daughter, Maci and I did just this, over the weekend, as we were on our way to her soccer game, driving through a wooded area on a bendy road…that took our breath away.

We couldn’t pull over safely until we were almost through the beautiful forest…but even still?

We stopped and got out of the car to admire Fall having her moment.

Plan ahead, give yourself a 15 minute window of opportunity to enjoy the access to the beauty that Fall is packing with her.

L : is for Less Pressure

What I am finding in this Fall season…is something I keep re-learning again and again.

Inviting Process over Pressure is a mindset worth welcoming and holding on to.

I wrote about this lesson I learned, now 2 years ago, HERE in this post when we found an old window on the side of the road.

The bottom line?

It’s time to STOP putting pressure on ourselves for perfect results.

I snapped this picture, while on a run.

Because?

I’m taking my own advice and following nature’s lead.

But what about you?

Is there something that you have picked up that maybe you need to stop and put down?

I can hear a line from a movie, during a scene, where there is an accident and the trauma nurse is directing a stranger to “put pressure on it!” – because in the scene, there is a wound that needs pressure.

But what if in your case or my case?

The thing we are attempting to put pressure on…

needs to breathe?

What if the proper pressure has been applied for the appropriate amount of time…and now…

What if it’s time…to stop and let go?

Take the pressure off?

Like the leaves on the tree, holding on for their appropriate amount of time…embracing their changes…but now…it’s time to take the pressure off and let the process unfold.

Is there something that you keep putting pressure on yourself…that perhaps…God never meant for you to put pressure on?

Choosing to live with a Process over Pressure mindset, makes way for new beginnings…even if we aren’t quite sure what they are...yet.

L – is for Leaning into the change of course.

Recently, I was on a morning run along my usual route and as I went to make the left turn onto a road that leads to the trail behind our neigborhood.

I was literally stopped in my tracks.

Because?

The road was blocked off with two big orange cones and caution tape.

Now, if you don’t know already?

I am a rule follower.

Which means?

I did’t know why my regular route was roped off…and I probably could have chanced it and run around the cones and caution tape.

But instead?

I leaned in to this surprise change of course along my morning run and made a right turn, instead of left.

This little change of course meant that I ran in a different direction, along a brand new path that I had never been down.

The course involved some more hills and wound up taking me a little longer to get home, than my regular route.

All that to say, the surprise detour required more stamina and endurance…on the fly.

I am sure that by now, you are getting where I am going with this little story.

The detour, and change to my course was unexpected, unplanned and required more energy and grit to get home.

But eventually, I came home with a little more exercise than I had planned on…which stretched me as a runner.

And, being stretched out of our comfort zones is good for many reasons.

End of story right?

Wrong.

What happened on m next run…is what got me excited.

What happened on my next run...is what made the light bulb go off.

What happened on my next run…is when I realized why the road was blocked off, earlier in the week.

What happened on my next run…is when I saw this…

New gravel had been laid.

Fresh new gravel…makes for a smoother ride in the long run.

Friend, I don’t know how this little sharing of a Fall message might be connecting with you today.

But what I do know is that the season of Fall…was created on purpose for a purose.

Just the same as you were created on purpose for a purpose.

I’m not sure if you feel like the road you were on, has recently thrown you a detour and forced you off your regular route.

Or, if you are simply trying to zoom in and read the map a little more clearly…(raising my hand.)

But one thing I am learning?

There is no such thing as going off course when God is your guide.

He might force you to take a right, when you were planning to take a left.

Easier said than done, I know.

But my gut tells me that we should lean into the change of course.

Because, whether we are learning something new, strengthening our endurance by choosing process over pressure, or we are being led into a new season…

There is One that goes before us both.

And?

New gravel will greet us when we get there.

Friend, when we lean into the changing of the Fall season or the change in course of our life…we are invited to lean on the strategy of God.

And in God’s strategy?

Faithfulness and love are always part of the plan.

Living on a prayer,

Heather

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

ephesians 2:10 ESV Emphasis added