It’s still a couple of
weeks until the first day
of fall but we’re having
a taste of fall weather. A
storm system moved in
Thursday and brought
with it rain and cool
er temperatures. Fall
ing leaves carpet the
front yard and the days
are growing noticeably
shorter.
The grandkids are set
tling into the routine of a
new school year and Alys
sa reports that she really
likes her teacher. Football
season has begun and
good football weather ar
rived just in time.
Lee Radziwill once
wrote that September,
far more than January,
always seems to her to
be the beginning of a
new year. “With the glow
of summer, after enjoy
ing relaxed and carefree
months, most of us are
ready to get back to a dai
ly routine.” She pointed
out that at the start of
September most people’s
spirits are high. It’s a time
of looking forward - settling down again, digging in and getting to work. It’s a time of beginnings for everyone - children and adults.
September is the time when most of us feel renewed enough to have the best intentions about what we would like to accomplish in the months ahead - what we would like to learn, what we would like to achieve.
Over the summer we’ve had the time to reflect on how we could make our days more interesting or what kinds of changes we should be making in our lives.
“Armed with intentions of improvement or change, we should sweep into September like a strong breeze! Full of enthusiasm, happiness and health, we start to accomplish some of the things we’ve thought about doing. Try to make them last as long as the glow of summer,” Radziwill urged.
I stretched out my birthday celebration for quite a while, receiving a trio of belated birthday cards last Tuesday. One especially cute one from my friend in Florida informed me that friends never forget birthdays “but sometimes they remember very, very slowly.”
On Thursday, a thunderstorm moved in about 8 p.m., buffeting the area with high winds and an onslaught of heavy rain.
The power was off when we returned home from a meeting at 9, so we lit a couple of candles and waited about an hour and a half before the lights came on.
We dressed warmly and attended the first high school football game Friday night. We arrived early enough to enjoy a couple of cheeseburgers before the game and proudly watched grandson A. J.
march in for his performance with the band. It wasn’t the prettiest game we’ve seen, but several players made impressive plays and the Lions pulled off a victory.
Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.
Opinion, Pages 7 on 09/08/2010