I’m sitting in my office on this luscious day watching the clouds blow past my window and it occurs to me… Where has the summer gone? September starts this weekend! The sun is already going down around 8:00. It seems that all of our pent-up travel bugs and running around to see family swallowed up the summer. I didn’t chose days at the beach or long walks in the zoo this year. I’ve been on the move. The summer for me is often a time to take a breath–probably because I’m not wrangling kids–before getting ready for the productivity of autumn. This summer was not that summer.

In Chinese medicine, the autumn is a time to let go. The trees let go of their leaves. The birds have to let go of their young. Human parents are sending kids off to school or to college. Autumn is all about welcoming the change of the seasons. For me it honestly feels more like the new year than the solstice does. We have been inhaling all summer the richness and ripeness of the warm days; in autumn the exhale begins, and we begin our contraction into the winter.

I think I’m going to do a vision board this weekend and spend some time thinking about releasing. We did a big purge when we moved back to Chicago, so not lots of stuff in my household laying around: but I am a collector of projects and ideas. There is always more that I want to do. This time of year I think about winnowing down my To Do list and honing my intentions about what I can accomplish–what I want to prioritize–before the end of the year. I have a new hard-copy To Do list organizer that I am loving for big picture stuff. And I still keep a weekly list of priorities in my calendar so that little things don’t get dropped. BUT….

If you’d like to do some vision boarding, please log in to the patient portal where you’ll find a free PDF guide (in the “Lifestyle” folder) that you can use as a guide.

Welcoming the transition into fall.