September mood board

September blessed us and then quickly vanished into the horizon... does anyone else feel like this year is coming to a rapid close? We're already into the tenth month of the year, and although most days drag when I'm dying to escape work, and yearn to be enjoying myself, it feels like at the same time, the days are passing quicker than I can count. September was full of duality.

Duality.

Duality is in an interesting thing.

In this society, duality isn't accepted. We don't accept the duality in ourselves, and we certainly don't accept it in others. Instead, we judge others and ourselves, we support fantasized stereotypes, and we further drill this belief into oneself and others that we aren't capable of being a vessel to two clashing ideas or things.

A person that is typically friendly, considerate, kind, etc. has a couple bad days.

- People instantly label them as being rude, a b*tch, an a**hole, etc. without for a second wondering if something more is going on with them to be acting unlike themselves.

I love to be healthy, but I also love to eat "gross" snacks and enjoy cocktails when I go out and party.

- Society says you have to choose one. If you don't choose one you'll be faced with insurmountable guilt and shame of enjoying two clashing lifestyles. And who even labeled snacks from the chip aisle as "gross"... probably someone who's feeling guilty pressuring themselves into only enjoying a healthy lifestyle, even though they enjoy both.

I love to wake up early and go to sleep early, but I also love to stay up late, draw my curtains closed, and sleep until noon some days.

- Society will either shame you into being lazy or pride you into being an "early bird", leaving you with the same amount of guilt and shame. Remember the early bird gets the worm!, well, "if I'm an early bird, I can't sleep in because then I will become lazy, so I always have to get up early", and "if I sleep in, I won't have enough time to get everything done, so I'll need to stay up late and then sleep in the next day to make up rest...", but if you do that, you're not the "early bird" so you're still lazy.

It has been drilled into us at every corner, so far down in our subconscious, the inability to be two things.

Fall and September is the epitome of duality.

The ecosystem around us is shutting down, in preparation for the cold winter months dedicated to rest.

Trees shed their energy taking leaves, animals bulk up with all the food they can to support their energy.

The days become shorter while the nights become longer. The mornings are crisp, sometimes with frost, while the afternoons are warm, reminding you of summer's glow.

So this fall, I challenge you to allow yourself to be both things. I challenge you to hear the judgement and not succumb to it, but instead reflect on how enjoyable it is to partake in both things you love, and how infuriating it is to restrict those same things from yourself. Who knows, maybe you'll find yourself asking "why I didn't allow myself to do x, y, and z before this?" Let yourself live in this transformative perspective and know you are capable of it all.

Love, Chloe

*not all photos belong to me, up to 3/4 of the photos displayed here have been curated from the Internet from places like VSCO or Pinterest.*