Fresh Starts - Anytime of Year _ Written By: Marilyn Laughlin, LCSW, RYT-500, Certified Nature Therapy Guide

This time of year usually triggers thoughts of endings (harvests, holidays that commemorate accomplishments from the past year).  In the natural world endings manifest as trees losing their leaves and fresh growth become dormant.  As humans, we are encouraged to redirect energy from external pursuits to inward, reflective priorities.  What do we want to pursue, refine, or change in the new year?  A recent trend labeled “octobering” adjusts our re-evaluating to the time of harvest and season change instead of in the winter when the earth appears to slumber and slow down where change is not as obvious.  

In the past few months I have heard the term “fresh start” from clients and in personal relations.  Fresh start implies a looking ahead from a space of acceptance about negative occurrences.  In my own experience of the last few months I can see the benefit of adapting this mindset to counter the sometimes bleak perspective that can arise from unexpected health issues.  Nature has provided a consistent message for me in the phenomenon of fall and cycles of endings and beginnings.  Here are a few:

Baby bird feathers 

I found these symbols of fresh starts repeatedly on the steps of my office and in my back yard where I have taken to starting my mornings instead of reading the news indoors. Their presence invites us all to imagine fresh starts and movement from perspectives that can keep us stuck or sad.  Baby birds learning to fly represent the opportunity to begin again as if for the first time  The Swiss philosopher Hermann Hesse wrote about how each day can be a new beginning.  

“Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor. You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own special lighting. Pay it some heed if you will have for the rest of the day a remnant of satisfaction and a touch of coexistence with nature”.

Hollyhocks

I found these new leaves peeking up from the bottom of the dead stalks of a holly hock plant in my back yard.  It first appeared last summer as a "volunteer" after an old Hollyhock plant in the front of my house was decimated by careless hands during a cleanup. These tiny new leaves promise a fresh start of a plant that will proliferate next spring, not just a one-time appearance that soothed the hurt feelings I felt at the time.  Hope, ambition, fertility, abundance, adaptability - all things needed for fresh starts.   It’s gonna make it! 

Pile of debris - catching and saving a loose prayer flag

I have hung 3 and lost 2 prayer flags due to the wind here in Pueblo.  The two I lost vanished completely - no pieces left, none left hanging, not blown into the elm tree.  However with the 3rd I got lucky and found them hanging from the posts, the string having broken in the middle.  I took them down and sewed new, larger, tougher cord to the flags.  On a random day when I was walking around in the back yard I found a single blue flag that I didn’t realize was missing from the set.  It was stuck in a pile of raked leaves and sticks, and not there when I found the set broken.  Somehow, this time, the wind had blown it into the pile, and captured it until I could find it.  Afterall, the blue Buddha represents the medicine Buddha.  I sewed it to the collection and rehung the whole set.  With pleasure I watched the wind carry the prayers out into the world as well as bringing them in, to me and my space.  

Sycamore seed balls

Sycamore trees represent strength, endurance, wisdom, spiritual connection, a safe haven in the forest, and they act as protectors against negative spirits for those passing near them.  The Celts believed them to be connectors between heaven, earth and the underworld. The seed balls represent prosperity and are the connection to fresh starts.  After the leaves have fallen, the seeds hang onto the limbs until the wind or gravity drops them to the ground. The balls are full of seeds called achenes that scatter when the ball disintegrates.  They float and if near flowing water are transferred to new locations to be planted.  Fresh starts from the ending.  

How many fresh starts are waiting for your discovery?