For the first time in my life, I experienced the beauty of fall foliage!! Like a big girl.

It’s my birthday tonight, and I am (as usual on my birthdays) staying home with phones turned off giving myself silent treatment and thinking about life in general (again, as usual.).

I feel as if I am 31 years old and that’s a good thing because up to few years ago, I used to feel like I was 28 years old. So I grew up fast in the past few years. I noticed a difference tonight. A big change.

My TV was on pause and it was displaying beautiful images of nature like flowers, lakes, ocean, etc. I looked up and I saw a spectacular image of fall leaves on the ground. It took my breath away: it was zoomed on 5 different fall colors, yellow, red, orange, rust, and pink. The pink leaf caught my attention! I could not take my eyes off it and suddenly I realized that this was the first time in my life, that I loved fall foliage!! I totally felt like grown ups. I never cared for the “beautiful leaves on the ground”. In fact, I always thought to myself, who’s going to clean that up? Don’t get me wrong, I never hated it, I just didn’t know what the foss was all about until tonight.

So, as I normally do, asked myself: what changed? Why didn’t I care for nature walks in fall before?  I always loved a cold but sunny afternoon, like most thanksgivings days in San Jose, California.  I used to get a cup of hot tea, go to the backyard, sit on a rocking chair and enjoy the air and everything. Well, most everything. What bothered me was that all my summer blooms were gone. Lawn didn’t look fresh, trees were bare, and leaves on the ground, messy. Everything looked so neglected. Fruit trees had some old fruits here and there, waiting for them to drop, they looked tired. For me, it was frustrating and kind of sad to see. I have to tell you that I tried everything to avoid that. Except for 2 birch trees, I designed my gardens (and did many times) to be mostly evergreen plants and trees, with some flower beds for color.  And even then, there was no avoiding seeing evidence of season change, right there and everywhere else I went.

And now, I am looking at these leaves and actually enjoying them? What gives?

I think what changed now is that I accepted! I accepted the fact that falling leaves is part of life and no escaping that. They have to go for plants to rejuvenate. I let go of controlling the outcome and then whatever showed up, was beautiful.

Not sure if it was acceptance that brought me the joyful eyes to see beauty in something that in the past I had attached too much negativity to? Or it was that I released control because of acceptance, which freed me to see the colors for what they were; their beauty! Perhaps, the absence of interpretation and assigning  labels,  allowed my eyes to see from the heart? And does it really matter? Either acceptance, releasing control, and not labeling are all the same , or somehow connected. What matters is to see from the heart and know. Remember we only get to know the things that we didn’t know.

These changes usually don’t happen overnight,  it evolves. It has been shaping, and I just noticed that in fact, I took these red leaves picture last week in Sacramento, outside of Starbucks on the sidewalk.

What is holding you back that you need to release? What changes are you noticing that it’s happening for you? Is there something that you need to change your mind about?

As the late Dr. Wayne Dyer used to say: When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at, will change!

Do you need help figuring things out or get moving with life?  Call me.  Let’s do right by life!

With love, Sonia

Sonia Shafazand  Speaker, Life Coach & Mentor to Individuals Who Want a Better, Happier Life NOW, Not Later!

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Disclaimer: I know this text may have lots of grammatical errors. Sorry about that and I try to do better. But! If you can, focus on the message. If you can’t, then read about perfectionism. In fact, I will be writing about that soon. Let’s face it, you don’t have to learn Chinese to go to China and enjoy all it has to offer!