It’s the Equinox today, the day we have equal amounts of light and darkness. We have four annual season changes, four turning points in the year where we can take a few moments to assess our progress and make course corrections. The Autumn Equinox is one of these and the theme for this one is ‘winnowing’, because it is also part of the harvest process. It’s a word that means to separate the edible center of the grain from the hard outer shell. And for us, at this time, it’s a process that we can go through as the past meets the present so we can decide what we’re going to keep of our harvest and what needs to be released.
We get opportunities to face the past and decide what is the truth for us and what is no longer true. What we remember of the past, especially of our childhood, is often interpreted through a different filter as we grow older. Sometimes situations look worse, sometimes they look better. And sometimes the past gets repeated in the present so we can view it with a greater degree of compassion, wisdom, and understanding. It’s our opportunity to see behind the filter of our perception and get a 360 degree view that was not available to us before.
This past weekend I traveled to Kansas City to visit my mother for a belated birthday celebration. We planned to go to the annual Plaza Art Fair, one of my favorite fairs, and do some shopping. The weather was not going to cooperate – heavy rain was forecast for later in the day – so we went early hoping to avoid the rain.
Well, we got through about half the festival when it began to rain lightly so we went to lunch. By the time we left the restaurant it was pouring heavily. The streets were filled with rushing water and our plans to visit the rest of the festival were not going to happen. We decided to go home.As I have shared with you before, my mother is terrified of water and of drowning, as she nearly drowned as a child. So while I was Ok with making our way through the ankle deep rushing water to the car, trying to avoid getting drenched while holding up our umbrellas in the driving wind and rain, my mother was not so brave. In a moment where the past becomes the present, I had to take her arm and guide her through the water, reassuring her with every step that everything was going to be OK and that we would make it to the car which was only a block away. In the weather conditions it seemed like miles.
We did make it safely to the car and made it home. Later, I thought about how in that moment the past had become the present and rather than my mother reassuring me, it was my turn to take care of her and get her to safety.
It was also my opportunity to express compassion and understanding and not be annoyed by her fears that I didn’t share. I’m not afraid of water or of drowning, a little bit of rain doesn’t stop me and I would have been OK with waiting out the rain or visiting the shops until the rain stopped so we could finish seeing the art fair booths. But I had to consider my mother’s history with her near drowning, which I know well, and that she had fears I didn’t share. She was afraid that the high water would prevent us from getting home – a reasonable fear given that area of town is prone to flooding – and that she would be helpless and in danger.
The past had become the present in a single moment and I got a much different perspective about my mother and myself.
The winnowing process is a useful tool to decide what is valuable from our experience and what is not. If you garden, as I do, you know that sometimes plants put out vegetables that you can’t keep. They don’t ripen properly, the bugs or squirrels get to them, they are misshapen, or there is something wrong with them. Those go on the compost pile that will become the rich loam for next year’s garden.
2019 has been a year of winnowing and so far we have been shown everything so we have a full buffet of experiences to assess. Sometimes we need to experience the past so we can have a new and different perspective of it based on our current level of awareness.
What do we want to keep with us and what is no longer useful?
What is aligned with our new intentions for joy and what is not?
Are there any aspects of the past that have become a foundation for the present and now that we have established new boundaries for the joy we want in our lives, they’re out of alignment with our ‘becoming 360’ intentions for new ways of being?
Is our past relevant to our intentions for the present? Is it meaningful and does it fit into our Custom Joy Formula (you can find out about that in my free 3 Keys to Joy master class, click here to get your worksheets and the link to the facebook group where you will find the videos)
What is the winnowing process like for you this harvest season? What is being revealed to you that is a choice for release or repeat, what is a blessing and what is a burden? As we grow in understanding we look at these things in much different ways and our filters expand to including compassion where we once held anger, joy where we once only saw pain, and peace, where we once saw chaos that we could not control.
This Equinox is about harvest, but it’s also about winnowing, the other part of the harvest process, which means we don’t have to make room for everything that we have gathered from the results of the spring/summer growth cycle. We have choices and it’s time for choosing – what is aligned with our new intentions for congruence and harmonious energy flows and what is not? What is a burden and what is a blessing? What adds to our journey and what is an energy leak and drain?Finally, what fulfills and expands our new intention to have a 360 life of joy, peace, prosperity, and abundance, and what does not? The seeds of potential have grown and yielded their bounty. Now it’s time to harvest the results and see what fits our intention and what doesn’t. Becoming 360 Energy Mastery is our goal, aligning with our intention and celebrating our joy, being in joy, and enjoying our life – every aspect of it – is the journey we’re on now. Everything plays a part in the process and we’re in control of what is allowed to participate and what goes on the compost bin.
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