I spent the weekend in the woods with my Scout troop. It was a gorgeous Fall weekend with warm days and cool nights. There was still color on the trees and amazing levels of beauty from the individual leaf to the forest as a whole.
Scouts are generally a loud bunch, and finding some quiet time for reflection is not easy. I was able to get a few moments of solitude in to enjoy the moment and the spend some time thinking back on this year and the time yet to be.
It's as it can be with our lives. Many high-performers try to achieve a level of perpetual motion - always driving to the next destination, the next goal, the next level. We surround ourselves with noise and action and struggle sitting still. We pause a few seconds enjoying success and then lurch off to find more. We often describe how the days are long but the years are short.
Autumn is a time to be thankful - to enjoy the hard labors of the year and reap the bounty of our work.
It's also a time of renewal. The trees don't seem to mind that winter is coming - they prepare for it by shedding their leaves - preparing for the Spring when they can continue growing.
We don't have the luxury of lying dormant all winter (as nice as that might sound sometimes), we can take each day as it comes, and find joy in the journey, not just each destination.
I'm not giving you permission - you don't need that from me. But I will give you encouragement: to take some time to reflect on where you have come and where you would still like to be. Rest as you need to, we still have miles yet to go.