Tomorrow - Thursday September 22, 2022 - is the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. "Equinox" comes from two Latin words meaning "equal" and "night," and it signifies a moment when day and night are nearly equal in length, progressing towards the longest night of the year on Winter Solstice. Autumn has been dubbed "fall" in North America particularly because of how many of the leaves on our trees fall off their branches in this season.

Having been in the "school" calendar for much of my life, and now having a kid in it, I've never given much thought to fall besides "back to school" season. But now that I've spent a few years in the (Anglican) liturgical tradition, I've become more interested in the ways we "keep time" - through the liturgical calendar as well as the seasonal one. Each season of our lives has different limitations and opportunities (think of the "sowing" energy of our 20's, the "nesting" or "building" energy of our 30's, the "focusing" energy of our 40's... and I can't speak past that :)), just as the Earth's seasons present us with different colors, temperatures, tastes, light, sounds, and invitations. My assumption here is that seasons are good for us, that each one can be a means of grace in our lives.
I love making "How To" guides, but I overlooked fall and spring, because they are a bit quieter and more mysterious to me than winter and summer. So early this September I started to wonder: what would it look like to pay attention to fall this year, to get to know it, to live more intentionally and "in harmony" with it than I have in the past? The result is this How To Fall guide, which I made as much for myself as for anyone else, in an attempt to "pull up a chair" to fall and listen to it, learn from it.
As with all of my guides, please see it merely as a "gate" to your own field of imagination and insight, your own questions, connections, and creativity. In other words, I hope it can serve as a "first draft" that you take and improve upon as you live with it, producing your own deep and dynamic template for what loving God, others and your own life looks like in this season.
I'll send us off to "fall well" with a benediction from an old professor based on Deuteronomy 31:8. Take heart!:
God goes before you,
God goes with you,
God stays with you.
Amen.
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