September Brings...

I have often said September is my most favorite time of the year. It might have changed... or, at least, tied up with other most favorite times... like November, or the time of year when the first heavy snows fall, or the summer days that are warm when the sun is up but cool throughout the night... those times are times I love too.

Still... there is just something about September to me.

Several of my most favorite people in life have birthdays in September.

School starts again in September.

Summer moves out and Autumn moves in... in September.

Where I grew up, September is often the worst hot month of the whole year. I can remember coming home from school and passing out on my bed with my journal, with a fan going full blast in the window, trying to keep movement to a minimum so as to keep cool. We lived close to the Pacific, so even in Southern California opressive heat was something we rarely had to deal with, and our house didn't have air conditioning. We had windows and ocean breezes. Except in September.

Where I live now, it's a cooling off month. By the end, it may even be sweater weather. Sometimes trees start to turn this month, but most of them will wait until October. There is just something about the light in this place, in this time, that strikes a deep chord in me.

The passage of time.

The invitation to play a little less, to think a little more. Introspection. Winter is coming. Are you ready for it? Do what you have to do to prepare... it might be a long one.

And so it goes.

I wonder what my kids will think about seasons when they're older. They have, so far, grown up with very distinct ones. Unlike my childhood, where seasons were only really noted by when the bougainvillea was blooming again. I love the distinct seasonal change of the upper midwest. I love that my kids have snow for Christmas. But I wonder if they will grow up and hate winter and find good reasons to move to someplace where flowers bloom year round. They might. And that would be ok.

I do sometimes miss the bougainvillea.