By Dee Wallace
I love fall. It is my favorite time of the year – the beautiful leaves, the crisp air, the beginning of warm fires and hot cocoa. My family always had great adventures together, collecting bittersweet for the table and preparing for Halloween. It was, in every way, a time of celebrating.
My grandparents never quite understood this. Autumn, for them, had always been a time of “getting ready for the storm,” preparing for the “cold, bleak winter months ahead.” I would ask my mother about why we experienced the same time in such radically different ways. “They grew up in different times,” she explained, “and have different beliefs because of what they had to go through.” It occurred to me, even at a young age, that this wasn’t the reality now. So, why didn’t they choose to experience it with joy like the rest of the family?
Now, of course, knowing what I do about self-creation, I understand that our belief systems define our perspectives, and that is the reality of our lives. When we choose to adopt new belief systems and perspectives, the reality of our lives can change. No one understood that back then. No one understood that it is really that simple to shift your reality.
Metaphorically, I wonder how many of us are still getting ready for the storm – waiting for the other shoe to drop, and living in a false reality of things not consistently being in balance: the yang/yang of life where we have to wait for the sun to come back out in the spring cycle that we falsely believe we have no control over. What freedom it would be to know that, by choosing to accept and live in joy and love, every season is the new creation of good and expansion. That “for every time there is a season” and that it is up to us to create it the way we choose to through our perspectives.
In her later years, my mother gave me a beautiful experience of this. It broke my heart the day she had to move into a nursing home. I had sworn she would never have to. I called her from the set I was shooting on, in California, to verify that all was ok and she was happy. “Hi Mommy,” I chirped, trying not to break into emotion. “I wanted to check in with you and see how things are going. How’s your room?” I asked. “Oh DD,” she replied, “it’s beautiful.” I felt a wave of relief flood over me, absorbing some of my self-inflicted guilt. “What does it look like?” I inquired. “Oh, sweetheart, I haven’t seen it yet.”
That stopped me. My very lucid mother wasn’t making much sense. I gently prodded, “But Mommy, you just told me it was beautiful.” “Yes,” she replied gently, “I’m choosing to see it that way already.” Wow. That leveled me. In her inimitable grace, she was creating her perspective and choosing her reality. What an amazing life lesson she gave me.
That’s why, this fall, I am harvesting my self-love, my joy, and my abundance everywhere in my life. I am allowing the Universe to send me all I have planted, sowed and reaped in the creation of me. Like a valuable crop, I am rising up to be plucked and sent out again to manifest good. This is the cycle of life that is ongoing, and the creation of that cycle is up to me. I am planting me as the crop of joy, love, money and success, and health. May everyone enjoy my harvest, and return it to me tenfold.
Dee Wallace has worked as an author, teacher, dancer and actress in film, television and the stage for over 30 years (E.T., Cujo, The Howling). Her book, Bright Light, tells that tale, and shares the spiritual lessons she has learned from a life in acting.
