Another Chance for a Fresh Start

I love this time of year. I always have.

The blasting heat of summer is almost done, but the frigid misery of winter is still months away.

It makes me want to take a deep breath, reassess a few things, and start again. Maybe I just never outgrew the student phase of my life, but September seems like a much better time for a New Year than January 1, coming as it does after a solid week of eating your body weight in mince pies and falling asleep whenever the mood takes you.

In September, we’ve been working away at various projects, have a clearer understanding of our capabilities and what’s just not going to happen. Plus there are all those brand-new school supplies on sale, waiting for us to make list upon list and plan upon plan! Woo hoo!

Of course, I say this like I’m about to get busy when, in fact, Alan and I have a week off starting this afternoon. There likely won’t be any mince pies but cue the random sleep times!

I am also planning to bring a couple of notebooks and pens on our getaway so we can make at least a few plans for the rest of the year and beyond. These will be more about the big dreams, rather than figuring out the details. It’s still a vacation, after all.

Isn’t it funny that we wait for these arbitrary dates to start fresh, to declare a brand-new year? When, in fact, every single day and every moment within each day gives us the chance to start afresh.

There must be something in the human psyche that desires the arbitrary start date. We like to tie our resolutions to something tidier than some random Tuesday at 2:36. I mean, what epic thing can start then?

Silly, really. Because all sorts of epic things start at the most random times. People hit the breaking point and decide to make a change. They stub out their last cigarette. They pour their drink and the rest of the bottle down the drain. They walk away from a toxic person, never to return.

It’s only looking back that we realize the significance of those actions and suddenly an arbitrary date and time become important to us.

So, while I will always have a special place in my heart for the magic of early September, I also like to remember that I started the journey of marriage on a Monday morning in late May. I launched this blog on August 22, ten years ago. We opened our bakery on a very quiet Saturday in August eight years ago. Each one a fresh start, each one more significant than I could truly have predicted, though I was pretty sure that the marriage thing was going to work out well.

The other wrinkle to my fresh start in September intention is that autoimmune diseases tend to flare up in spring and fall. So whatever grand plans I may have are going to have to wait until things settle down a bit. It’s OK, it gives me a chance to play with papers and pens some more, and I’ll never complain about that.

But if you know someone with autoimmune disease, you may want to be extra nice to them. They are contending with more than the usual right now.

One plan that I can implement is the launching of my newsletter. The first one goes out today. If you’d like in on the fun, you can sign up at the end of this post. It’ll go out twice a month and include links to my blog posts as well as my writing on Medium, with a little behind-the-scenes story and whatever else I think you might like. I’m pretty excited about it if a little daunted by the work ahead.

Whatever you may be launching at this time of year, I wish you all the best. Remember to take naps when you need them. And keep an eye out for those mince pies!

I’ve launched a newsletter. It will go out twice a month and include links to my blog posts as well as highlights of my Medium articles. If this sounds interesting to you, you can sign up using the handy form below.

Photo by Plush Design Studio on Unsplash