Kayaking yesterday
on a near by lake, I saw a man loosening the bolts on his dock to take it in
for the season. My son, visiting for the
weekend, stayed up late Saturday night to watch Notre Dame football. The leaves on the sugar maple are starting to
turn. This morning when I went outside,
there was a chill in the air: all signs
that summer is over—at least in the northeast.
A
lot of people make New Years’ resolutions, but how many of us still think of
September as the real beginning of the year and a time for fresh starts? It also
means the end of the summer. Although
summer isn’t officially over until the 21st, for all practical
purposes Labor Day is when summer ends. That
could be the reason I greet September and the Fall with a certain amount of melancholy.
I even start counting down the days in early August, anticipating summer’s
end.
I’m
not sure of the reason although I’m sure it has to do with the fact that September
for me still means the beginning of the school year in spite of having graduated
from college over 40 years ago. Although I’m a lawyer and was in school for a
number of years, I never liked the rigidness.
I’m not very good at following rules—at least when it comes to the ones
made by other people. Maybe that’s why I’m
a writer.
But
besides school starting, September also means that official “fun” is done with until
next summer. This is not to say that
there is no fun to be had during the rest of the year, but it has always seemed,
except for maybe Christmas, summer is the time when the fun is scheduled in, be
it trips to the beach, picnics, outdoor concerts, hikes and best of all,
anything involving water.
Living
all my life in the northeast, summer is the only time we can go boating, water
skiing and swimming. Once September
comes, you’re pushing it. This past
weekend I wasn’t the only one who sniffed the air and said, “Dammit, it’s
starting to feel like fall.” This
sentence, mind you, is always accompanied by a sorrowful shake of the head.
There
is, of course, the positive side to the arrival of Fall. It’s a time of the fresh starts I mentioned
earlier and the do-overs. Just as in
high school when I would harbor hope that the new school year would be
different than the old with new teachers and new opportunities to succeed,
there is still that optimism in the air every September. Whether it’s something simple, like a
resolution to go to yoga class more often—and I’m not the only one, September
classes are almost as crowded as January’s—or to finally take a painting class,
most of us view September as a kind of reboot or renew. We are starting with a clean slate, with a
chance to do what we’ve put off for months or even years.
Deborah Nolan has two romances with Montlake, SUDDENLY LILY and CONFLICT OF INTEREST and one with Desert Breeze Publishing, SECOND ACT FOR CARRIE ARMSTRONG. Her second romance, STARTING OVER, is coming out in January 2017 with Desert Breeze.
When she is not writing, she is usually taking yoga classes in NYC or Hudson, NY or art classes in the city.
