This week, we have all experienced the return to school with the emotional spectrum of excitement, nerves and curiosity that this time of year always brings. Flip-flops are replaced with smart school shoes, and blurry summer days transition into our familiar routines and timetables. We may miss summer for a while, but rest assured that it will return once more when we have moved through another cycle of the busy school year.
While September marks a time of transition from summer to autumn, it is also a time to reflect on the inevitable and necessary nature of change. As we look around and see the colours changing from greens to burnished browns and reds, we realise that change is the most natural and reliable thing in the word.
Mother Nature ably reminds us, if we care to look around, that nothing is guaranteed to stay unchanged forever; everything must continue in its natural cycle. We should relish the moments of sunshine and summer, but then we need to make way for new joys in the beauty of the autumnal season and cosy nights taking their turn.
Humans often want to hold onto each moment and make it stay, preserve it and hold it tightly, but knowing that being fully immersed in a moment and then letting it go is how life evolves. When we can’t hold onto something, we must let it go with grace.
So, while September signifies the end of the summer, it also presents new beginnings – new friendships, new opportunities, new challenges and a chance to roll along with the changing seasons just as we are meant to.
