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.