In Sarah Ban Breathnach's book "Simple Abundance" she gives us suggestions each month for ways in which to enjoy the month. Here are a few of Sarah's Joyful Simplicities for September:
🌻 L' été c'est fini, as the French say, so end summer on a high note. Make a really big deal out of the last cookout of the summer. Serve your favorite summer recipes with a final flourish. Linger in the twilight, watch the sun go down, and bid summer a fond adieu.
🌻 On Labor Day weekend take 15 minutes to write down all the things you wanted to do over the summer but never got around to. Put your list in an envelope. When you get your next year's calendar, paperclip the envelope to the first day of June and open it then. Try to block in some time on your calendar to make postponed pleasures a priority when summer returns.
🌻 Celebrate the autumn equinox (22nd) with a festive dinner of homestyle cooking. Do this especially if you live alone and rarely cook a descent meal for yourself. Bring home a small pot of mums for your dining table. Draw hearthside and light the candles, pour the wine or cider, and enjoy the simple pleasure of comfort food. Have you ever tried an English "fidget pie," a traditional harvest meal? It's composed of potatoes, onions, apples, and ham pieces in a vegetable stock seasoned with a little brown sugar, salt and paper. Pour into a pastry shell, cover with a top crust and bake as you would any filled pie.
🌻 Observe the autumnal festival of Michaelmas (29th), which is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel. This ancient English harvest festival dates back to the sixth century. Legend has it that on this day the devil was driven out of Heaven by St. Michael and landed in a patch of blackberry brambles. It's traditional to have blackberry treats--pies, tarts, or jam on scones for tea on this day.
🌻 Start making your Christmas list this month so that you won't be frantic in December.
🌻 Take a walk under the huntress moon (16th).
I always buy potted mums in September for my porch then plant them in the garden before winter. . . .
Sarah writes, "Since ancient times, September has been viewed as the beginning of the new year, a time for reflection and resolution....... It seems to me that January resolutions are about will; September resolutions are about authentic wants." Sarah asks this question:
What do you want more or less of in your life, so that you can love the life you're leading?When my children started school September became the beginning of my year. It's been hard to break the habit even though it's been seven years since my last child went off to college for his final year in September. I always felt bittersweet this time of year. I was glad to see the worst of the heat and humidity come to an end, but sad to no longer have my sons about, even as I was glad to have more time to myself. This time to myself allowed me to reflect on my life. Making new resolutions would always come out of it.
September is also special for me because it's my husband's birthday month. We spent a wonderful week on Martha's Vineyard in 2012 for his birthday. We stayed in a carriage house that had a small garden behind it where I'd write in my journal each morning before we went off to explore more of the island. You can read about it on Morning Musings starting with this Post and clicking on the next one for a total of eight more . . . .
And September is the month Gabriel came into my life in 2008. . . .
What about you? What does September represent to you? Do you have certain rituals or celebrations like Sarah suggests? Special memories?
How would you answer Sarah's question?
.•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•
Take Joy!
September has always seemed much more like "New Year's" to me, because September was when the new school year started. And I LOVED school. Every September was a new chance to clear the slate and start over. It also helped that September meant Fall was upon us, and Fall has always been my favorite season. Late Summer meant saying goodbye to Summer, and preparing for a long, cold, storm-lashed Winter. I have vivid memories of this time of year at the Lake when I was little. The Summer people in our neighborhood would cover indoor furniture with dust sheets, tuck linens into closets & trunks with bars of Yardley English lavender soap or [far less pleasantly] mothballs, stow lawn furniture & garbage cans in their garages. Notes were rolled up & left in empty milk bottles on kitchen doorsteps, instructing the milkman when to stop delivery for the season. I remember being 5, just about to start kindergarten, and watching one of our Summer-only neighbors, Miss Clark, who taught French at a college, wrap kitchen breakables in thick layers of old newspaper and then box them securely. My job was to hand her sheets of newspaper when she needed them. According to my mother I started "helping" with this enterprise as a very social 3-year old, visiting from two houses over. LOL! Can you imagine blithely letting Olivia visit a neighbor on her street, on her own, at the age of 3? Boy howdy, were the times different or what? Then of course, all the "year-round" fathers were busy taking down screens, putting up storm windows, changing to snow tires. Taking the family boat out of the water & prepping it for Winter alongside the garage [or at the Marina]. Mothers were packing up shorts, swimsuits, beach towels. Unearthing sweaters, corduroys, snowsuits & mittens. At our house we kept outer wear on individual pegs near the kitchen door and this area was virtually empty all through the Summer months [except for the odd umbrella now and then]. But we knew, when Mom put out our rain slickers & Fall jackets & rubbers every September, that once again, there was "weather" heading our way. PS - September is the one month in the year when we don't have a birthday [on either side] so when my Dad and his sibs established our annual family clambake they picked September for it. But we've all decided, as we've aged, that we prefer colder weather for all that delicious hot clambake grub. Chowder and clams and salt potatoes and lobster and hot cider etc etc. So it's been permanently moved to the middle of October for the past 30 or so years.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Sarah's question, I think I'd say I want more QUIET and less noise. As someone who lives alone, I have the TV on virtually all day long, even though I'm often paying very little or no attention to it. I guess it's just a force of habit, and probably provides some sense of someone else being in the house. But in the last year or so, I find myself muting the TV so often. I just CAN'T STAND the nearly-constant [not to mention obnoxiously-loud & noisy] commercials. I also have to mute every single Humpty Trumpty news item that appears as well, and we all know there've been jillions of those!! I pretty much "travel" with my remote all the time now as I work around the house, so I can zap the sound ASAP and only listen to what I WANT to hear. And my little home is the perfect size for doing that easily, thank God...
Janet, you've just reminded me of another reason September feels like the beginning of the year. After 4th grade we moved every summer (if not to a new town then a different house) so September was my chance to start over once again and try to make a friend. I only needed one, being the solitary person that I am, but she had to be a BEST friend. I always felt I needed to improve myself in order to be accepted, so for me September was always about putting forth my best self.
DeleteI rarely watch TV mainly because of the commercials. Perhaps you'd enjoy listening to Podcasts instead. Or Ted Talks on YouTube.
It's funny you mentioned those, Cathy. I HAVE been getting acquainted with the many many podcasts out there. It's almost like being back in college - these days with the Internet a person can educate herself about just about any subject under the sun!! And YOU TUBE is without a doubt my favorite website. This week alone I watched a 3-hr video on President Truman and another about the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. A bit of a history buff, I am... 😀
DeleteSeptember has always been like a new year for me as well. I think it all comes from starting school all those years ago and then with our children going back to school. It's also a time now to share with the grandsons as they begin a new school year. As much as I like summer, I adore Autumn more. Today we are certainly getting a taste of what's to come. It's lovely to open the windows and turn off the air conditioning. ♥
ReplyDeleteI agree Martha Ellen! I've been enjoying these cooler hot days and am glad to open the windows in the morning when I get up.
Delete