Why is now the most beautiful season for me? Why is breathing so easy for me at the moment? Why do I just feel free? Many people find this time of year oppressive, dark and even frightening. Yet it is precisely this time of retreat that offers so much liberating energy. It is the time when I get the opportunity to be with myself, which also means facing my shadows. Profound conversations with myself arise, which gives me more and more light-filled moments. It is not escape that protects me from unpleasant situations, as I believed for many years. No, I have been caught up again and again. Rather, there is potential in facing one's shadows, again and again, with vehemence. This makes them unbelievably enriching partners, with whom I can now also laugh at myself. And today I say: "I am free, the darkness can no longer harm me!" Since then, the light-filled moments have been my strongest companions. Even in this "darker" season.