I work here, in my studio, peering over my laptop through these panes of antique glass, noting the way hours change things. Near the start of October, on a whim, I decided to photograph the view in a series, spanning time. Over the course of a few days I fell in love with a particular leaf that danced at the farthest tip of a branch directly across from my window. It was broad and healthy and green and loved the wind. Last Sunday I blinked and it had turned bold yellow. This morning I blinked and it was burnt orange , and now the last one on its branch. I snapped its picture, then dashed off to run the day’s errands. And when I returned, it was gone.
Isn’t it interesting, I said to myself, how the end of even a maple leaf’s dance can leave such a void in your heart.
Come walk this autumn path with me. Come gather its color and breathe its perfume before it fades away. Such magic is rare; it cannot hold. It lasts for only one day and then it’s gone. Come, walk with me. Come watch the last golden leaf-coins fall across our path. Tuck the smooth, red leather of the oak into your pocket to spend on dreams. Listen to the secrets whispered on the wind as it carries these bright bits of the season away. Come walk with me and gather this treasure for keeping in memory’s store.
Just in time for Halloween pumpkin-orange tulips popped up on the shelves of my grocer’s store. They seemed rather spooky to me, I admit, quite out of place and time. A trick of commerce, I scoffed. But then their beauty won me, coaxing me to change my view. It’s not a trick, but a treat, I decided. Tulips should get to play, too.
A few days back, fewer than I can count on my fingers, some of the maples still wore their circus colors, other trees still held their green. “Trick or treat” is the call of the season. Now the boughs are all but bare and the wind howls, ghostlike, hurling what’s left to the ground. That’s quite a trick. But be patient. The treat still lies ahead.
Back in 1971, a beloved comic strip character named Pogo uttered a statement about human nature that’s still repeated to this day.
On Earth Day of that year, the cartoon showed Pogo, who was an opossum, walking through a forest with his friend, Porkypine. Porkypine tells Pogo that the beauty of the primeval forest touches his heart. Pogo, who is walking somewhat gingerly on his tip-toes, replies, “It gets me in the toes!”
It’s the next panel of the cartoon that holds the famous line.
Porkypine and Pogo are resting at the base of a tree overlooking a meadow that’s become a vast junkyard, full of cans, broken bottles, rusting cars, papers, dead appliances, tires. Not a living thing can be seen. Porkypine agrees with Pogo saying, “It is hard walkin’ on this stuff.” Then comes Pogo’s famous line:
“Yep, son. We have met the enemy and he is us.”
The truth of that is certainly clear to us when we decide to clean up a bit of the junk that’s littering our own inner landscapes by ditching a habit that we no longer want in our lives. The part of ourselves that’s the enemy appears as a Temptation.
Temptation is a sneaky guy, wily as can be. But here are three tactics you can use to defeat him.
1. Blow Him Away
Temptation is an alert telling you to pay attention, that an arch enemy has entered the scene.
As soon as you notice it, imagine a mighty invisible shield falling between you and the temptation. This shield has the magical ability to stop time long enough for you to remember your intention to go in a different direction now.
As you create this mental scene, take a slow, full breath through your nose. Then sniff in a quick “topper” breath, to fill your lungs completely. Next, purse your lips and blow out vigorously as if you were trying to extinguish a whole bunch of candles on a cake. (Maybe it’s a birthday cake for a new, improved you!) Imagine the air blowing the temptation completely away.
If it’s a cantankerous temptation, you may have to blow a few times. But it will bring you calm and control.
2. Kill Him with Kindness
Know your enemy. Think about what tactics he uses to defeat you. You’ve fought this battle before and succumbed to temptation’s trickery. Remember that everything he tells you is a deceptive snare woven of illusions designed to draw you in. The goods he delivers bring temporary gains, but spell your defeat once the moment’s satisfaction has passed.
Catch him in the act, and calmly decline his offer. “I see what you’re doing there. No thanks.”
Being cordial to your enemy disarms him. And you can thank him because this habit he’s tempting you to continue probably served some purpose in the past. You don’t have to remember what it was. You just feel like moving on, that’s all.
He might continue his antics; he knows he’s won before. Get the best of him by smiling as you turn down his offer again. Actually smile. A big, contented smile. And keep on repeating “No thanks. I have other things to do.”
3. Call in the Reserves
Enlist a friend to remind you that you are a powerful being, capable of refusing anything that stands in the way of your being who you intend to be now. Tell your friend what you’re practicing leaving behind, and what you plan to do with the resources that leaving it opens up for you. Tell him that you could use his encouragement while you take your first steps down this new path.
Or make up an invisible warrior to stand at your side if you like, to reinforce you when temptation threatens. “You can do this” he says, grinning at you.
Remember, “What you practice you get good at.” That’s just the way it works.
So choose to practice being free to be the best that you can be. And keep on keeping on. Because the other side of what Pogo said is that we are also our own best friends.
Patiently they wait, holding their green while the beeches and sassafras open the show. They watch the maples and their neighbors paint the hills with their yellows, their burgundies, golds, and crimsons. Then the rain comes, washing all but shreds of color to the ground. And just when you think that autumn has spent her glory, you wake to find that the oaks have stepped onto the stage to dance the grand finale of autumn’s wondrous show.
Suddenly a high wind blew in from the west and I stood there, dizzy with delight, as the trees sent bushels of leaves tumbling on the rushing air and twirling all around me. It was grand. And the trees and I laughed.
Before the colors are swallowed up by winter’s quiet dreams, let us give you one more sweep of hues to carry you through the colorless cold. Tuck these bold flags into the corners of your mind. Wave them on nights when the wind howls, when snow pulls its white blankets over your fields. Let them warm you with their bright songs and encourage you when the days seem bleak and endless. Let them whisper to you that winter is but a pulling back of the Archer’s bow so that, come spring, new songs may rise, and joy, renewed, may fill your soul.
You are the essence of gaiety and delight. To stand inside your citron arms is to banish every residue of sadness and every wish for something other than this golden, shimmering now. Your lemon-lime leaves sing the music that my heart has so longed to hear. And I dance to you, oh great one, with my heart dancing to your song.
