I suspect for most of us August signifies one thing, end of summer, “back to school.” To this day when I see such display signs in stores this time of year, along with stacks of notebooks boasting a price of five for a dollar and enough number two pencils for every man, woman and pet in America, along with the children really using them, well frankly at that moment my hands start sweating and I feel a bit dizzy. I’m overcome by the creepy aroma of erasers and the faint smell of industrial cleaners rattling around in the memories of my nasal cavity. I feel a weird need to raise my hand and ask permission to use the restroom, then I gratefully snap out of it, startled as if a nun just threw a piece of chalk at me and soon remember those days are long past.

Yet when you don’t have a lifestyle or work that has renewal dates built into the calendar you wonder what you’re missing. How do you restart, recharge, renew if it’s not a “back to something” time of the year for you? It’s simply just August. It’s hot, lawns are dying, cicadas are buzzing, pumpkins look premature. As I spend my time in traction today I’m challenging myself to look at August with new eyes. I shouldn’t have a built-in hate of the season, I’m not busying myself with “to do lists,” I’m not headed anywhere in particular, I don’t need a crisp new hideously plaid uniform or a backpack that screams, ‘can I sit next to you?’

Rather for me August now quietly leads to September which leads to welcomed cooler days and bluer skies in my part of the world. August is the eighth month in a twelve month calendar, it’s not the end nor the beginning, it’s just August. Lots of people I love have birthdays in August, Leos and Virgos……. some of my favorite folks. So I have to stop dissing August, it’s done nothing to me. It’s just a month that spells change to some, but any month or any week or any day can do that.

I need to walk through the stores and smile at a wall full of protractors, stop wondering if there’s a better use for a bevel protractor than poking somebody’s eye out. Work on letting go of how we blew our noses before each child brought a 250 count box to school to last the year. Believe there is a child alive that enthusiastically eats mixed vegetables with pizza. Recognize and accept there are kids out there that are contentedly counting the days until the return to school, they are eagerly awaiting the sight of the bus…..they are the future bloggers of the world!

Leave August alone I say, it’s a perfectly fine month. It may just become my fav month……….nah, probably not.