Mushrooms, hongitos, as our Autumn Teachers
Lately, on walks through my local Public Lands, mushrooms, beloved hongitos, keep appearing. They rise quietly from the forest floor and remind me that the most important work often happens in the dark, beneath the surface, where no one is watching. Mushrooms invite us to consider that transformation is not always visible or productive-looking. It is often quiet, slow, and deeply rooted.
As fall leans into winter, I notice that my own rhythms mirror this shift. Parts of life begin to compost: old stories, old expectations, and ways of being that have completed their season. And below the surface, a mycelial network of connection and memory continues to hold and nourish what is quietly taking shape. This unseen layer is working, even when nothing appears to be happening on the surface.
At Rooted in Nature Therapy, we are listening closely to this seasonal wisdom. This fall-into-winter pause is intentional, a moment to honor the descent and to move inward. It is a time to conserve energy with the same wisdom we see in trees, soil, and the wintering animals around us. This rest is part of our sustainability practice, a reminder that the work of People and Planet requires spaciousness rather than speed. Our practice honors the seasons, the cycles, and the Land as guía, sostén y maestra.
This 2025, we supported approximately 105 participants. This number holds both gratitude and gravity. The work is slow, relational, and deep, guided by presence rather than urgency. Every story and every session deserves pacing, boundaries, reflection, and rest. These pauses are not interruptions to care. They are part of the care. They are part of the practice. And in this season, mushrooms, hongitos, remind us how essential this is. Their teachings ask us to tend to the unseen layers, to break down what no longer serves, and to trust that this quiet inner work creates fertile soil.
Mushrooms also teach us that nothing thrives alone. Beneath every forest is a vast mycelial network that nourishes, communicates, and supports. Rooted in Nature Therapy moves with that same understanding. Our network includes the participants who entrust us with their stories, the families and communities they belong to, our collaborators and co-creadores en comunidad, the Public Lands that slow and steady us, the ancestors whose wisdom runs through our practices, and the future generations for whom we are modeling sustainable care. Our movement lives because of connection rather than isolation. Healing, like mycelium, is always relational.
As we enter winter, nature invites us to slow down, to descend inward, and to let ourselves be held by quiet spaces. Mushrooms teach right timing. They emerge only when conditions align. The land teaches release and the sacredness of letting go. Winter teaches us that stillness is generative, a place where seeds rest and gather strength before emerging when ready.
If you are moving through your own seasonal transition, you might gently explore questions such as:
• What am I composting right now?
• What unseen growth is happening within me that deserves acknowledgment?
• Who is part of the network that nourishes and sustains me?
• Where am I being invited to rest, to slow down, and to trust the timing of my own emergence?
Rooted in Nature Therapy will be entering its winter hibernation beginning Tuesday, December 9, and we will joyfully resume participant care on Wednesday, January 7. This pause honors our commitment to seasonal alignment, collective sustainability, and care that moves at the pace of nature.
May the mushrooms guide us into a winter of restoration and remind us that cycles are sacred, that rest is a biological requirement, and that everything we release becomes part of our becoming.
