Here we are.
September.
Labor Day is behind us.
Fall is full steam ahead!

It’s a good day to . . .

September always feels like the Fresh Start month to me. That old academic calendar just sticks hard in my brain, even though my life hasn’t been ruled by its rhythm for a very long time now. September . . . remains a great time to re-group after a summer break — to get new supplies and organize my desk and catch up with my calendar. It’s a perfect time to re-set that regular routine again, after a summer of spontaneity. All The Things begin again in September: Wake-up, sleepyhead; your hiatus is over!

September signals more than just that organizational re-set for me, though. It also lights up the time-for-learning parts of my brain. As a student, I was a big fan of learning new stuff. I loved getting back to school and having new textbooks, full of stuff I didn’t know yet. I was energized when teachers explained what we’d be learning, and I loved poring over a new syllabus to get a sense of all the things we’d be covering in class. I was excited to learn!

So September and the whole back-to-school thing means . . . a re-set, sure. But it also makes me hungry to learn new stuff again.

This year, as a tribute to September and that back-to-school feeling, I’m setting out, intentionally, to learn . . . new stuff. I don’t mean I am going back to school myself (because I don’t want to be bogged down with homework or assignments or class commitments). But there are lots of ways to learn new stuff — and I’m going to pick something and go with it.

Maybe . . . I’ll do an independent deep dive into a specific topic with some focused, intentional reading and my own research. About what, you ask? Well. I don’t know, exactly. But I’m interested in lots of random topics that could suffice: plant propagation, rejuvenating tired gardens, astrology, art history, and the life of Simone de Beauvoir . . . just to name a few.

Or maybe . . . I’ll learn to DO something. Before the pandemic, I was actually signed up to learn to play mah jongg, something I’ve been wanting to learn for a long time. That didn’t happen, of course, but my desire to learn to play remains. And although I am not eager to add any more arts or crafts to my already rich and over-full creative/crafty life, we do have the Book Arts Center here in Kalamazoo . . . and they offer one-day workshops in simple book-making and paper-making which look really interesting. (I’m so tempted.)

So.
I have lots of ideas, and lots of opportunities to learn new stuff.

I bet you do, too!

“Learn continually – there’s always ‘one more thing’ to learn!”
— Steve Jobs

Learning new stuff . . . is good for our aging brains. It’s a great way to keep our lives fresh and interesting. And, besides, it’s just good to shake things up once in a while, y’know?

What might you want to learn?

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September is here.
Don’t wait, my friends!

Start Your Engines!