Welcoming September

In August, I jumped back into blogging all “higgledy piggledy” as they say here in England. I did it without any clear vision at all, actually and that was sort of the point. I’ve let far too many things sit idol in my life because the path wasn’t clear enough for me to move forward, and eventually that idol engine would just die in the middle of nowhere. Stranded. That’s not a good feeling when you’re just a few miles from home with ice cream in the trunk. It’s an especially bad feeling when you’re talking about your whole life purpose.

So, with that in mind—all the times I’ve put off doing anything because I didn’t have fine details and blueprints and maps—I decided to try something new and dive right in. With nothing. No idea what I would write about or where it would lead and what I wanted to do with it next, and I trusted that whatever it could become would be revealed to me over time. As it turns out, that was the exactly right thing to do. Because over the course of the past few weeks, my vision for this space has come into sharper focus.

When I was playing around with ideas, I came across a quote by Albert Einstein. He said “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.” And since I’m always looking to understand everything better I looked out my window at the giant Sycamore trees that line my street. We’re approaching September, and the leaves are starting to transition from their beautiful bright green to the ever so slightly pale yellow. And I thought back to the last Autumn, when they continued to turn, and eventually drop, leaving the exposed bones of the trees to sit quiet and powerfully bare for the winter months before they dug deep into the thawing ground for the strength to bloom again. 

And that’s when I had this idea. That my blog will center around the cycles of nature, both of the earth and the human kind. 

September. In terms of nature this month doesn’t seem clearly defined by any one unique state of being, like the other months tend to be. While October and November feel like times of Harvest, and December and January feel like times of dormancy, September seems more easily defined by the awkward stage. Like it’s all knees and elbows and voice cracking around that Adam’s Apple that’s on the way. We’re leaving the warmth of Summer for the chill of Autumn and the lazy school breaks for the hustle and bustle of reinstated routines and schedules. We leave the holidays abroad and the sunshine and return to our work, where we grind out the bills and the budgets and then start planning the next time we get to escape it all.
September is about transition. And transition, while it is a necessary and often uncomfortable part of life, is such an opportunity for growth. And I hope to touch on that a lot this month. How changes affect us, and how to maximize the good that comes from it and minimize the bad and how to manage it the best we can in all areas of our lives.

As the months continue to roll forward, I will continue to present life as I see through the prism of the moments as I encounter them. 

October is a time of Harvest. Abundance.

November, a time for gratefulness and preparation for winter.

December is time of family, exposure, reflection and revelation. A perfect time to dig deep into your soul and take pride in the strong places, and identify the weaker ones.

January is for addressing those weaker ones. Personal development and chasing potential.

February is a time for commitment and perseverance. The winter feels longer now. The goals feel harder to achieve and farther away. This is the month to go deep and decide not to quit.

March is a time for vision and hope. You’ve survived the worst and spring is near. You should feel stronger, more capable.

April is a time for nourishment. Rain, sun, soul food and energy. 

May is when you bloom. Show up and show out. Be the proof of what you’ve been working for. Be big and bold and brave and proud.

June is a time for strength. A time to tweak and make adjustments for that extra reach.

July is about confidence. Readiness. You know what you can do, now. Your head is high. The warmth is on your shoulders.

And then back to August. The month of leisure and recovery. Rest and enjoying the fruits of your labor and a year well lived. 

It’s easy to let life get away from you. We’re pulled in so many directions by so many things and people who demand our time and attention. I hope to bring a sense of order and intentionality to that. To take time and truly engage with the things I’m doing and seeing and spending time with. To live my days with a certain amount of awareness. To do it all the best I can, and more importantly, to do on purpose. 

So I hope you’ll join me here for that journey. My promise is to always to try to make it worth your while. To give you my best and to always work toward making my best better. I hope we can maybe build a community here too. That can connect and support and offer encouragement and ideas to one another. So that we might better ourselves and our experience with this life and all the things that fall into it. That we can chat and observe and explore life in all its inspiring, entertaining, soul shifting and heartwhelming moments, while commenting on all things sense and nonsense. Just life as we see it. And life as we love it.   

Changes big and small await us. 

Welcome, September.