Fall is Made for Reinvention

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi

Sometimes I like to pretend that I have lived a thousand lives before this one. I imagine I’ve seen a million color-stained sunsets and traveled the expanse of the globe several times. I dream that there isn’t a wish I haven’t chased, or a pursuit I haven’t conquered. In my mind I have loved to the greatest capacity of myself; I have tasted the very stars.

The truth is, I pretend so that I don’t become restless. Anxious with wanting more from a life whose pages are numbered … whose sands of time have already, irrevocably, begun to slip to the other side of the glass. In some ways, my imagination saves me, because only when I dare to believe I have “done it all,” do I find the strength to embrace change as it comes … as it asks of me more than I might
otherwise have had the courage to give.

Fall is made for just this sort of reinvention – this call to change. Everywhere around you, nature is exquisitely expressing herself in a state of transition. The wind turns her face, tendrils of leaves and magic curling and twirling in a dance only made for one turn. The harvest ripens and blooms as scents and colors, equally sweet, dare us not to take notice. And even heavenward, the moon and stars begin to shift their steady places in the sky. Nature performs in her metamorphosis arrestingly. There is not a spirit left untouched by her charms, proving year after year, that change is something essential to the fiber of creation.

In ourselves, it is no different. So, I wonder if it’s possible for you to pretend along with me? To fake bravery until it becomes real? I wonder if you might imagine that change was not something to fear, but something to fall in love with? A chance … a wish … a dream at the end of a journey you just need to begin. I always laugh when I am with someone who shows me a piece of clothing, or a piece of art, and says, “I love this, but it’s just not me.” Wouldn’t it be you if you chose to wear it? To take it? Where did the limitations of self come from? Being an individual does not mean you are confined to singular perception, definition, or version of yourself.

Like Fall, dazzling us with her elegance, with the grace of wearing change, I hope you might reinvent yourself again and again. Each day may you discover something new, a passion or a purpose one of your past lives didn’t afford you the time to explore, but that this life … this time might.

As you delight in the possibilities of you, carry these questions in your mind. Don’t search for answers, they are curious creatures that will come when they are ready. For now, settle into the glorious process of discovering that change allows magnificent things to happen to those with malleable hearts and open minds.

Questions to Carry: Where is there room for change in my life? What does nature have to teach me? Is my faith calling me toward a new depth? How do I hear the voice of truth? Do my actions give me room to grow? When will I know I’ve changed? What are the parts of myself that have changed already? Is there someone I want to take on my journey of reinvention? Is my transformation focused internally? Am I being gentle with myself in this process? What can I be grateful for right now? Am I ready for peace?

Reinvention

In a breath of Northern wind
in a turn of balm to brisk
slowly
and all at once
all of nature changes
And what once felt so predictable –
a canopy of breeze-tossed green
is now an explosion of brilliance …
colors that burn just to look at,
because they are so beautiful
because they are so fleeting
Nothing made of magic can stay
Instead we are forced to love quickly
to lose our hearts
and our souls
and ourselves
to the sweeping enchantment of time
about to be
lost
We live fuller in these days of change
we feel more,
and take what little time we are given
to pursue what has been chasing us all along –
Reinvention
growth and acceptance remarkably renewing themselves
until we find desire and passion inching us toward
becoming exactly
who we were meant to be
all along

Elle Harris is a believer of impossible things. She is a lover of words, wonder, and the whimsical delights of everyday living. Caught in the creative place between reality and imagination is her favorite place to be. Please join Elle in pursuing life with intention, and grand conversation on her blog thisquotablelife.wordpress.com. Find Elle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @ElleHarris82.