I often find myself restless and unsettled as the summer fades into fall.
I feel the anticipation of a new school year with its smell of freshly sharpened pencils and crisp textbooks. I am energized by the promise of blank notebooks and the hope of white sneakers before they are broken in. New teachers, new friends, new schedules, new activities. So much potential for what is yet to come.
I also notice that I turn inward as the days start getting shorter and the temperatures begin to drop. Both happen slowly and subtly until one day I realize it’s dark when the kids leave for school and when they return home. I catch my breath when I notice that the tree I walk by every day has suddenly exploded with orange and yellow and red. I always wonder if it happened overnight or if it’s been like that for a while now and I just didn’t see it until today.
In recent years, the disequilibrium feels even more acute. I feel untethered as the summer melts away, disoriented and restless, and for a moment I can’t figure out why. I notice that my energy feels off and I seem out of sorts for a few weeks until I realize that my inner knowing is remembering. My father passed away during this time of year, five years ago this week. It begs me to take heed: please focus on what really matters. We don’t know what the future will hold.
Just like the start of the calendar year or my birthday, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins this year on the evening of September 15, feels like an invitation to reflect, reset, and recalibrate. Even before my father died, I always appreciated that the holiday occurred in the early fall because it provided me with a built-in opportunity to pause and take stock. The practice feels aligned with the changing of the seasons and part of the natural rhythm of the world around me.
Regardless of your religious tradition or spiritual practice, perhaps this time of year also feels like an appropriate moment for you to reflect, reset, and recalibrate so that together we can move through this seasonal transition with intention.
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