cookies and change

Labour Day, the last day of summer holidays before the onslaught of school. It is a bittersweet day always as it is the end as well as the anew. And, just like it was in some master plan, the air changed last night. Gone were the warm gusts of summer breezes felt on Sunday morning. Instead, we awoke to a September nip in the air. Sure there will be several summery days in the coming month, but there is the awareness that we must embrace all of them knowing we are sliding right into autumn.

I love September. I love the energy it exudes, the harvests it produces, and the beginnings it offers. I love the sweetness of cut grass and hay, the aroma of the phlox, and the touches of orange already spreading on some of the trees. I love the fact that I can head down the hill from my house and buy fresh morning picked corn and plump tomatos, crisp green beans and juicy blueberries for dinner from the stall set up on the side of the old highway. I love seeing the rowers out on the river in the early morning when I'm heading across the bridge to work. I love seeing the university students loping around learning about this new city they have found themselves in, having just moved into their dorms and apartments on the weekend, anxiously anticipating the challenges, both social and academic, that hover in the near distance.

I also love watching the little ones tentatively taking steps down the street with new backpacks strapped on like little turtles carrying their homes on the way to the bus stop. Little ones and not so little anymore ones congregating at the bus stop all in anticipation of the world of learning at the end of the ride.


September offers up transitional firsts........the ones which carry big life meanings for us as individuals, and at this time of year, most of them are connected to school. It conjures up hopes and fears for the individuals directly involved, but also impacts the people who nurture them too because change in the life of one ripples out to impact the lives of others. We all feel the winds of transitions.

Change is never held inside a cookie jar with the lid on it. It can't be contained no matter how hard one tries. The lid is always off the cookie jar and that's the way it should be, though sometimes change happens so quickly that we are left trying to replenish the cookies over and over again......we can't keep up with the demand. Sometimes, people tiptoe over to that inviting jar and grab handfulls when we aren't paying attention. Before we know it, change has occured, the cookies have been consumed, and we're left starring at the crumbs left at the bottom of the jar........ We're left wondering how we missed out on the feast of milk and cookies. Time and hunger ebbed and flowed and we were too busy sweeping and stirring and yearning and doing that we didn't look up to see the growth of those around us who were consuming the cookies of change.

This past weekend, we looked up and saw that grown ups had replaced the little children we not so long ago made sand castles with. The little ones who needed our full attention down at the beach or around the campfire roasting marshmallows, were now sitting with the adults talking about their September transitions. When did they sneak by to grab a few growth cookies?? One of them begins his foray at university in the big city of Halifax, far away from the hub of Spencer's Island and every time I looked at him this past weekend, all I could see was the little guy who sat on the back of the four wheeler holding onto his Dad........... a cookie in his hand. He's off to study political science and history. His big brother is entering his 4th year..........already!! His year is one of being on the edge of big changes. Another has returned to the small community having graduated with a Science teaching degree and wonderful memories of winning the National soccer championships, ready to step back into the little country school in Advocate to begin her career. She will make the best teacher! I saw that in her when she was 5 years old.........and now she's about to fulfill what seemed to be a destiny kind of thing.

September is all about change, or maybe its just the time of year we acknowledge the fact that it happens no matter how hard you try to keep the lid on the change cookie jar. It can be surprising to see how time simply marches, whether you're paying attention or not. It is what it does best. It marches back and forth from the cookie jar. Thank God we have September to make us take notice.

To Jamie, Matthew and Katie...........may this September of changes for you three be full of your favourite cookies, and may you always have a glass of ice cold milk to dip them in. Here's to a year of eye opening beginnings for all of us.