Happy September

I look at the bottom right-hand side of my laptop and realize that it is September. On the 22^nd, fall will officially be here and a new season will start. The summer season is always a challenge to navigate, with the hot weather and the memories that creep up and take hold, some positive and others, well, still bring sorrow, although the intensity has significantly lessened, and for that I am grateful. And I am learning that challenge doesn’t always equate with bad.

What I’ve learned through living, loss, loving, reading, research, and therapy is that happiness can’t be lumped through man-made constraints of time: an hour, a day, a month, a season, a year, a decade--but rather though series of events and moments within those constraints. I attempt to mindfully hold on to those special moments and hold them close to my heart, because they are fleeting. Life is fleeting, and does it go fast, so there is no time to ruminate. There is too much more to do and experience and see to stay stuck in the muck of what was.

And if the muck tries to creep in, I turn to music to shield myself. A song that I use to lift my spirits—and the spirits of my students---is Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”. I try to remember Marley’s lyrics when I am feeling afraid: “Don’t worry / about a thing / ‘cause every little thing / is gonna be alright.”