Fall air

There's something familiar in the air. Crisp. Cool. This is a time of new promises. Forget New Years, your birthday or even spring.

I have been off balance all day. Sometimes joyful and sometimes sad but mostly I have let the emotions come and go, passing through me with acknowledgment. I read something that stuck with me today:

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Frederick Douglass

I've been coming back to it over and over again at every quiet moment (few and far between). It says something we all know but need to be reminded of. That there is struggle, agitation, violence, depression, failure in the quest for what is good for us, what is peaceful, what is harmonious, even zen. To deny the struggle is irresponsible or even ignorant. To deny the struggle is to deny ourselves the joy.

Today I'd like to just open my heart a little wider. See that you struggle just like me, reach out a hand to cheer you on.

The rain is coming, soon to turn to icy snow. Under my feet I will hear the crunch of ice and from my mouth I will see the white cold air. I will run all winter long. Icicles in my lungs. Uhuh. And the earth will provide us all spring again.

Rejoice.