September and October are my favorite months, not because September happens to be my birthday month and Samhain happens to be my favorite holiday, but to me it is the start of true “New Year.” I love the Fall: the crispness in the air (which admittedly doesn’t happen until twilight in California) and the feeling of renewal that occurs for me this time of year. School started in the fall, so there was new learning to be had and a new teacher and classroom to get to know. There were new clothes (or in my case, new-to-me clothes), there was always at least a new notebook and perhaps a new backpack, and new shoes (because we inevitably would grow out of the previous year’s pair). In this time of year, there is always a sense of overall thanksgiving for me, because I remember being genuinely grateful for the new
things that I received, and I was also genuinely anxious about the coming changes and transformations that were bound to occur to me. As an earth-based spiritual practitioner, this is a sacred time. It is a time where we believe the veil between the corporeal and the spiritual is at its thinnest. It is a time where we can honor our ancestors, both recent and ancient. It is the dark time of the year—where we quite literally say goodbye to the sun (seeing it as often) and welcome the night earlier. As a fellowship or church community, this is also the time of starting anew, and welcoming each other back with ingathering, hope, and desire…Desire to see our community grow and flourish. Desire to evolve and transform to meet the needs of our members. Desire to see what happens next!