Season of Becoming. . .
Watch a tree release its leaves. There is no struggle. No branch reaches after a falling leaf. No tree insists that what belonged to yesterday must remain tomorrow. Nature releases what has completed its season.
Human beings tend to be less graceful.
We hold onto relationships after they have changed. We replay conversations that ended years ago. We carry disappointments, identities, possessions, expectations, and old versions of ourselves long after they have stopped serving us.
Buddhist teachings on non-attachment do not ask us to stop caring. That distinction matters. Non-attachment is not indifference. We can love deeply without demanding permanence. We can appreciate something fully without believing we must possess it forever. We can treasure a chapter of our lives without insisting that the chapter never end.
Attachment says, “This must remain.” Wisdom says, “I am grateful this was here.” The difference can transform how we experience change. Sometimes we hold on because releasing feels like admitting something was unimportant. But letting go does not erase meaning.
A leaf was not meaningless because autumn arrived. A relationship was not meaningless because it changed. A career was not meaningless because it ended. A younger version of ourselves was not wasted because we grew beyond it. Every season contributes something. Our practice is learning when to hold and when to open our hands.
As autumn settles around us, consider asking yourself a simple question:
What am I carrying that has already completed its season?
Do not rush toward an answer. Sit with the question.
Maybe what needs releasing is resentment. Maybe it is an expectation of how life “should” look. Maybe it is an identity you have spent years protecting. You do not have to throw anything away today.
Simply loosen your grip. Sometimes letting go happens gradually, one finger at a time. And perhaps that is one of autumn’s quietest teachings: release is not always an ending.
Sometimes releasing what “was” is the catalyst to create room for what is becoming.
Peace and Love, Jim
#becoming #thedailybuddha #tdb
