A Glimmer of Light for the Fall – Reflections Through the Senses for the Season
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Photo taken in dallas, TExas.
We placed the pumpkins out and planted a croton earlier this year as the planter was bare from the brutal Texas summer heat. As I took a pic of the pumpkins and the rich fall colors in the croton to send to a friend, I noticed the glimmer of light. The way the morning light shone on the pumpkins made me wonder how I would appreciate and “see“ the fall differently after such a hot summer. What would my perspective be?
In the counseling world, the word “glimmer” is used in Polyvagal Theory to refer to something that’s the opposite of a trigger. According to Deb Dana, LCSW, “Glimmers refer to small moments when our biology is in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm. We’re not talking great, big, expansive experiences of joy or safety or connection, these are micro moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways.”
Examples of glimmers are: seeing a rainbow, smelling lavender, feeling the warmth of the sun, humming, wrapping our body in a soft blanket, a meaningful conversation with a trusted friend, a cup of coffee, or sunlight sparkling on water.
What are the “glimmers” we can anchor into and claim for ourselves? What will help us be resilient during times of struggle? What can strengthen the depth of our mental health and vitality in everyday life? Glimmers are not unlike the “green statements” I wrote about in Stop, Breathe, Believe, and they will be unique for each of us.
PHoto taken at lake kemp, seymour, texas.
I love this Celtic Psalter by John Philip Newell:
“As the day’s light breaks the darkness of the night, as the first movements of the morning pierce the
night’s stillness,
so a new waking to life dawns within me, so a fresh beginning opens.
In the early light of this day,
in the first actions of the morning,
let me be awake to life.
In my soul and in my seeing
let me be alive to the gift of this new day, let me be fully alive.”
How is it that we align with our authenticity to live fully alive on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis?
For October, may we search for the glimmers...the things that help us feel safe and resilient. May we all look for tastes, sounds, places, and people that help us feel grounded and fully alive.
photo taken in Dallas, texas.
Gretchen Rubin’s book, Life in Five Senses, is a beautiful primer on paying attention to the beauty within each of our senses. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are examined in a fresh perspective, with emphasis on what is occurring in our body. Rubin enhances the “soul work” of paying attention with this quote by William Blake: “Man has no Body distinct from his Soul. For that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.”
May we be inspired to notice…notice the light, notice the glimmers, notice the taste, notice the intricacies of what we see, notice the sounds, notice the touch.
photo taken in dallas, texas.
May we allow the sights, senses and thoughts of October to remind us to contemplate the idea of looking for the glimmer, to pause and reflect, and then ultimately to invite wonder into our everyday by accentuating the pause of the day, the hour, the moment.
