September

For as long as I can remember, September has been one of my favorite months.

September is filled with good things; many more than the average month.

It begins in the United States with a holiday, Labor Day, which is essentially a day to prepare for all the other good things spread throughout the month. September is traditionally the month of going back to school, and the month in which our football really begins. It is the month of the autumnal equinox, when summer turns to fall.

September is the month in which we start getting serious about reaping what we have sown in the spring and tended all summer long.

September is the beginning of the final third of the year. All of those resolutions we made so long ago, and all those plans and goals we set start becoming real. There are only four more months to go!

It does not seem to me that September has the same significance where I live now, in Southern California, as it did where I grew up, in Wisconsin. The days get a little shorter, but it does not really start getting cooler yet. There is much less urgency about preparing for winter here, since winter is not much of a challenge. Most of the leaves here do not change colors, and it is easy to forget that it even is September.

I miss the sense of starting fresh, of a clean slate; a new school year, a new season, a new beginning.

I want to find ways to spend this September reaping what has been sown and starting something new; new opportunities, working with new people in new situations.

How will you start something fresh today?

How will September be the foundation for the rest of your year?

[Image by Nicholas_T]