Fall in Texas Archives - View from the Front Porch

13 09, 2021

Why I love Autumn

By judythemorgan|2021-09-08T06:28:03-05:00September 13th, 2021|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels

I love this time of year. Autumn signals new beginnings to me.

A fresh start. A new year.

Most of my life has been spent in school in one form or another—kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high school, undergraduate, graduate, Sunday school, Bible school, teacher training classes, writer craft classes, computer classes.

Plus, all those years of teaching.

A whole lot of my life has restarted every September.

I so looked forward to those new notebooks, and pens and pencils, and a new school year. Even today, it takes every bit of restraint I can muster to stay away from the school supply aisles when shopping. I will always need another new pen or notebook…for my writing, of course.

The other things I love about September are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The first Jewish holiday celebrates the start of the Jewish New Year with challah bread made with apples and raisins and dipped in honey. Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is spent in prayer and fasting.

I’m not Jewish and, as far as I know, I have no distant genealogical Jewish DNA anywhere. I do have many good Jewish friends who share their holiday traditions with me. The idea of beginning a new year in September with a clean slate is what I like about their fall holy days.

I also like that September brings a drop in temperature—if you live someplace besides Texas. Temperatures dropping from 99-100 to 90-93 as not a true temperature change as far as I’m concerned. It’s still hot.

But mornings are cooler with temperatures dipping into the high 70s and that gives a hint of Autumn, my favorite time of the year.

If you are Jewish, I wish you Shana Tova, a week late. And Tzom Kal a couple of days early. To everyone else, Happy September.

24 09, 2018

It’s the Back to School Season

By judythemorgan|2018-09-24T11:31:32-05:00September 24th, 2018|Make Me Think Monday, Writer's Life|3 Comments

Texas is a seasonless place. Life here is lived in a constant tropical sun. It puts you in a constant state of seasonal disorientation.

I’m not complaining merely stating fact. I live here by choice.

The lack of the brilliant bursts of color on the trees to signal fall has arrived means using other clues for the shift from summer to fall.

Here in Texas the back-to-school sensation of September is what marks fall’s beginning.

The temperatures aren’t going to change until maybe December. It’s the excitement of back-to-school sales and the sound of the yellow school buses in the morning that mean the season is changing.

As a kid, I loved going back to school. Seeing friends, getting new school clothes and shoes. Fresh new notebooks with all those empty pages waiting to be filled and sparkly new pencils waiting to be sharpened. It was an exciting time for me.

Now, flipping the calendar to September still brings that anticipation of new adventures. It’s a turning point, not only signaling the arrival of fall but also new beginnings.

A New Year means making resolutions. September is a time to assess progress. Where are we? How much further do we want to go?

Summer with its freedom from routine and laziness is over. Fall is the time to harness the momentum of back-to-school excitement and make a positive push forward.

Do you get that “back-to-school” sensation in September?