The Beginning

I have been thinking about this post for a while.  The words have been flitting through my mind for weeks, but I haven’t been able to get a handle on them.  I thought they would come when the kids started school or over Labor Day weekend when all of the Fall decorations came out of storage and my home its metamorphosis into shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown.  But the days were still hot and sticky, and the nights stifling.  It wasn’t time yet. 

Then, when I began my “Uncovering Happiness” project, and started on my first resolution of restoring order to house and home, I thought, “Now the words will settle and allow themselves to be written.”  But this new project has been met with some resistance.  Not by me, but by the time I can’t seem to find in the 24-hour cycle of the rising and setting of the sun.  The only words available were words of frustration and annoyance…and those words have no place here.

I was starting to lose hope.  I was beginning to think that Fall has lost its magic.  That perhaps I was falling into the same melancholy state that gripped me at the beginning of summer.  I was becoming anxious and restless and was prepared to write off the whole season before it began. 

Then today I woke up and the sun wasn’t shinning.  The morning was cool and crisp and overcast.  And by midafternoon, when I still hadn’t had to turn on the AC, I thought, it’s finally here…and the words stopped and sighed with relief.  You see, Fall is my favorite season.  And I don’t just mean like purple is my favorite color…no, Fall is my season. 

Spring tends to be the season many associate with “The Beginning”.  After the cold bleakness of Winter, Spring, and all its glorious colors warm us…flowers bloom, winged friends busily begin to spreading life, and the sun breaks through the clouds warming our hearts and our lives.  But for me the true beginning begins when August gives way to September and the leaves start changing and falling.  I literally feel the Earth cleansing itself and making room for the new, and so, I also begin cleansing and making room for the new.  September sets the tone for the rest of the year.  There is another round of birthdays to plan, the holidays to divvy up among friends and family, and the new school year.  I beginning planning for breaks – Christmas, Spring Break, and Summer – so that budgets are established and time off work can be arranged.  It is a busy time, but it fills me with hope and anticipation for the year ahead.  My season.  The one I look forward to all year long.

I know it’s technically not Fall yet, but today I feel it in the air.  Today I feel the magic of this wonderful season, and I can see clearly all the good that awaits us this year.  Today I am at the beginning…and it is glorious indeed!  I hope yours is too!