September brings cooler nights and lovely days. We head out of town for our first vacation in over two years. We gather with old friends and family and celebrate a bit of normal. The garden overflows with goodness, but the weather is hot and dry and I make notes to try different varieties next year because our climate has changed, and I watch as our water bill sores.

Percy grows like a weed and surprises us all with how much he talks and understands everything we say. He spends Thrusdays with us, playing in the sandbox and eating all the cherry tomatoes in the garden.

I find a calmness in the passing of days, pausing often to take note of the beauty in the world. I feel the need to reach out more, to work on reconnecting with old friends, allowing myself to feel a bit vulnerable and strong at the same time.

I get better at picking up my camera, searching for pockets of light and going beyond the back yard to do so. There is no other purpose for this other than the peacefulness it brings to my being.

“That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done,
obligations gathering, books and football in the air ... Another fall, another turned page:
there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning,
as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”
-Wallace Stegner