September: A Fresh Start

September 1. Wow.

My first thought is, “How did we get to September so fast?” My second thought is, “Oh, thank goodness the heat of summer is almost gone!”

Although summer seems determined not to let go without a fight. We are supposed to have temperatures in the upper 90s all week.

Still, even though we may nearly have a heat stroke just walking to the mailbox, there is something inside that knows it’s time to start slowing down. A gentle whisper in the back of our minds. Like a mother calling out, “It’s time to get ready for bed.”

Maybe fall is the bedtime ritual before the deep rest of winter.

There’s something comforting about returning to routine. Children start a new school year. Vacations wind down. Schedules settle back into place. Even though we are more than halfway through the year, September still feels like a new start month.

Of course, January gets the official New Beginning Crown, but September has always felt like another beginning to me. I suppose we’re raised that way. For the first eighteen or so years of our lives, September means starting over.

New school year. New clothes. New shoes.

New school supplies.

Oh, the new school supplies!

To me, one of the most hopeful places in the world is the school supplies section of a store. Even though I’ve been out of school for a fair few years, I still love wandering through those aisles.

There is so much possibility there.

A kaleidoscope of pens, all standing tall in their packaging like neat little soldiers waiting to report for duty.

What will they write?

Will one of them write the rough draft of a college essay? A poem? A story? A do you like me, yes or no note to the little girl with the big blue eyes?

And then, of course, there are the notebooks.

Pick your fancy—unicorns, rainbows, KPop Demon Hunters (I’m still trying to figure that one out).

All those clean, crisp, blank pages waiting for something to happen.

Maybe one will become a journal. Maybe it will hold class notes or the beginnings of a future novelist’s first story. Maybe the margins will slowly fill with the doodles of a hot rod some fifteen-year-old boy hopes to get for his next birthday.

Nobody knows yet.

That’s the wonderful part.

And, of course, there are the calendars and planners.

Oh, the planning!

They even make calendars that start in August for the new school year. A whole fresh year laid out in little squares just waiting for something to be written in them.

On my recent wandering through the school supplies section, while desperately trying to talk myself out of buying yet another pack of pens, it occurred to me that fall is about more than finally being able to stop pretending I’m an “outdoorsy” person and happily retreat to my air-conditioned sanctuary.

Fall is potential.

Fall is a chance to start fresh.

Maybe that’s the distinction I’ve been trying to put my finger on.

January is about starting new. September is about starting fresh.

The calendar year may be closer to the end than the beginning, but September gives us another chance. A chance to settle back into our routines, sharpen our pencils, straighten up our notebooks and decide how we want to finish the year.

We don’t have to throw everything out and start over.

We can simply turn the page.

Who knew a pack of pens and a blue spiral notebook held so much potential?