Friday Five: The Season You're In

kathrynzj says: "Headquarters for me is the northeast of the United States. Here school is getting back in session, the tease of autumn is in the air (or the hope for the tease of autumn is in the air) and church life is gearing up to full throttle. One thing I've learned with blogging and social media is that the where I live is not necessarily where you live. And so I want to know what September means to you, in your place of the world and time in your life.  This week's Friday Five is: What are 5 things that the beginning of September mean to you?Bonus: What's one thing you could do without?"

September is....

• A month where being flexible about weather expectations is a very good practice.  Here in Minnesota anything can happen during this month.  The day I arrived here (lo those many years ago) on September 15th is was 95 degrees! Imagine my surprise as I had left all my summer clothes behind in storage thinking that I would not need them until next year. I went to Target and bought close-out shorts and they served me well for a couple hot weeks.  It can also snow in this month (and has!) I just heard this morning that there was a snowfall of 9 inches recorded in this month in this state! Can we say weather extremes? Be ready.  Yesterday it was in the 90's.  Today it's damp and 75. Layers are my friends.
• A month when things begin again.  I have spent so much of my life either in school or involved with school schedules on one front or another...it just always feels like when this time of year comes, I should be starting something! So this year that is precisely what will be happening! As of September 12 I am beginning an extended unit of CPE at one of local hospitals.  I am excited and a little anxious about balancing this with my full-time job as well as a little life balance (like ever seeing my husband!)  But I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and I'm going to give it a go.  This was not part of my formation for ordination as we did a local training process, and so it's a "want-to" for me rather than the requirement that some have. I'm thinking about this as a time of discernment as I think this just might be something that I am called to as a more full-time ministry.  Time and experience actually doing it will tell, I think. So I'm getting my book bag packed and figuring out how to get five days of my psychology job into four. Off we go!
• The month when I begin to seriously dread winter.  I know this is not good,  I need to stay in the present moment and all that good stuff...but that is the reality.  I start to worry well in advance about bad roads and the general inconvenience. This year at least we are in an urban area and there should be no need for extended trips in the hinters.
• The month (this year) when I am homesick for the prairie light.  There is different beauty here on this side of the state.  We live in the river valley now and it is rolling, lush and very green with many trees.  This is actually my home landscape and it has always soothed me.  But I did fall in love that light on the prairie in my years there.  Especially in the Fall, it is golden, luminous and has an almost touchable quality to it.  I even named my blog for it! So missing it now a bit.
• And yes, the church year, though not liturgically, begins in earnest in September.  This too is different for me this year as I am a partaker more than a planner of congregational events.  our new church home is full of opportunities for groups and involvement.  Everything from Theology and a Pint to the "Heretics" Adult Ed group, a couples dinner and discussion group, and voice and bell choir.  I am also on the clergy supply list there and will be called now and again to preach and or celebrate the Eucharist.  A virtual feast, but again a discernment as I try to balance out what I want to do and what, realistically, I can.
• While this is not about September per se, this beginning of a new season reminds me again about all of the changes and transitions that have taken place in this year.  It's my first Fall  in many many years without a house to get ready for the coming year.  No garden to put to bed, no gutters to clean, no leaves to rake, no reminder to call the furnace guy for the annual check-up. We did not sell our previous place, but as of October 1 we have renters who are willing to take all of that on.  We can rest assured that things will be watched over and that we don't have to make 6 hour round-trips for snow and maintenance. We are grateful for this solution to the burden of all that, but there is a way in which I miss the "have-tos" of having a house that depends on me to keep it going. 

As for the bonus....I love Fall and all it brings...if only it were not followed by Winter.  Really, that I think I could happily do without!