September Moment

How is it September already? I ask this every year. It is a magical time. September gives honor to Labor Day and ushers children back to school. It also happens to be my birth month. Woohoo! Life is short and unpredictable so we celebrate as much as possible in our household. We make positive memories with intent. 

September also marks the end of summer. We still have the "dog day" cicadas that sing their songs high in the treetops, reminding us that little things can have long reaching effects. Cicadas are my favorite insect. They remind me of my childhood spent with my grandma near Traverse City. I would climb the trees or walk through the woods listening to and looking for the cicada. They were peaceful days, but come September I was back home on the other side of the state. Like many, I became oblivious to the songs of nature and worked through the stress of school.

Maybe that's an exaggeration. I remember the changes of seasons. I remember how the insects voices were absent in winter and how the local farmer's fields grew quiet. Perspective is everything. Focus changes. That's how life is. We go from experience to experience, often without pausing, and then we blink. Summer is over again. The school year has ended again. Another work week is done and it's time to prepare for the next. Life can become a series of crises to manage or get lost in. 

What if we chose to slow down, even for a moment. What if today you took 3 minutes to go outside and just breathe. Look around you. What do you see? What do you hear? Can you settle into the moment of peace you just carved out for yourself? Let go of the stress and anxiety. Look up from the depths of depression for a bit. Stop letting media tell you what to feel or do. Put down your list of things that must be done. Focus on this moment. Plant your feet. Breathe. Do you feel the presence of God? He's always with you. He promises that. Can you sense Him?

Take it all in and allow yourself a sigh of relief. You just stopped the chaos. You took control of your life and acknowledged what the Creator of the universe made for you. Just like the cicada's voice can travel a mile, this moment you made can resonate through you all day long. For years, even.

If you are unable to go outside or look out a window for any reason, you have the gift of living in this day and age. You can turn on the tele or pull up the internet and seek nature that way. Maybe you have pics of dream locations or fantasy lands that intrigue you on your walls. It's not exactly the same as going outside, but you can still take a moment. 

And, in the moment you take, see how you feel. Are you tense? Breathe it out. Roll your neck and shoulders. Appreciate you can do that. Give a murmur of praise. Accept the peace you feel. Rejoice in the dregs of summer. Soon we will see pumpkin spice everything, the colors will come and go, the crickets and cicadas will sleep, and the quiet will descend as the snow falls. Winter will be here with it's excitement soon. Until then, smile and know this day was made by the LORD. It has purpose, just like you.

The following is a poem I recently found by Daniel Thomas Moran. It paints a picture of the glory of September. I hope you enjoy it and are able to see the perspective of this poet.

Come September

Come now, September, faithful friend,
On whose pure, light air do I depend.
Extract the harvest, the wind from fields,
A cloak against winter, a bounty yields.

Take with you, July, its rumbling rains,
August’s glare, which parched the plains.
October will come to paint these leaves,
And draw deep the breath November heaves.

Too soon December comes to brood,
Where life and dying have come to feud.
But, you September whose soul’s the pure,
May your splendid countenance long endure.

Take me along where e’re you go,
Bestow those dreams Septembers know.