Sweet September

by Alicia Mathewson

I remember the first September when I was back living on Cape Cod year round. It was so sweet. The crowds left, the air was crisp and I had just healed out of another transformational period in my life that had felt very difficult. It was as if I had come back home. This feeling of rebirth was what inspired my song Sweet September.

I remember playing it at the Cape Cod Chat House, in Dennis, and a new friend said "thank you for making me feel September in a different way". At the time, I didn't really know what she meant.

September had always been a happy time for me. While growing up, it was back to school clothes and field hockey time (that's in another song called September Again). My birthday being at the end of August made it feel like the beginning of a new year.

When I was living in NYC for 12 years, I always got the Jewish holidays off from teaching and also felt that NEW YEAR beginning. I loved that NYC September feeling.

Last fall, however, September was not so great. In fact, if felt like a death.

I knew on some level that I was going through another transformation and expansion in my own consciousness and spiritual path, still it felt horrible and I wasn't sure how it was going to end up.

Suddenly I understood what my friend had been talking about. The fall, especially here on Cape Cod, can feel like a dying, a slow descent into winter. The bright sunny active feelings of summer begin to wane and, depending on our focus, this can feel sad or scary.

What I have learned on my path and through my many experiences is that I am a part of nature and nature has cycles. Living in New England reflects these cycles so literally to us, it is at times comforting and also can be challenging.

What if our internal cycles do not feel in tune with the outer season? For instance, it's summer and you're feeling like you want to stay in bed, or it's fall and you're wishing it was spring?

I have many passions in life, but my new and greatest passion is to accept myself exactly as I am. This takes great courage and practice, but when we do, no matter what is happening, we are empowered to create a Sweet September.

Let yourself be. Let that which needs to die, go. Let that which wants to be born, arrive. Trust in the process of who you are exactly as it unfolds. Thank the trees for teaching you that sometimes to truly live again, we must let ourselves die.

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Alicia Mathewson is a singer, songwriter, healer, teacher & writer.

After 12 years in NYC and 1 ½ years in the Middle East, she is now based back home on Cape Cod, and willing to serve wherever her breath may lead. Inspired by singing 40 chants in 40 days as a part of her 40 and Fabulous! fundraising campaign (July 15-24, 2011), her most recent CD, 2012: Isn't it Amazing: Songs & Chants for the New Vibration, for the New Vibration, was released on March 22, 2012. Her pure voice and inspiring songwriting creates a powerfully healing vibration and is an impressive and more expansive follow-up to her 2009 release Winds of Sinai.

An accomplished guitarist, yogi, and music educator, Alicia founded Sounding Still Wellness in 2011, providing music lessons, energy healing, meditation classes, and transformative coaching.

To learn more, please visit www.aliciamathewson.com or www.soundingstillwellness.com.