September Downloads: A Time for Transition

I think it must be ingrained by a couple of decades of school, or perhaps by millennia of northern ancestry, or maybe it’s human nature, guided by the physical world we inhabit, but September is a time of transition. Home from the cottage, back to school: turning leaves, changing weather, and angling light.

Growing up, a new school year meant new shoes. Each of us got to pick out what we wanted to wear on our feet for the coming year. Nothing too special—these were school shoes after all—but replacing summer’s dusty sneakers with a shiny pair of leather shoes seemed to signal the change from the lassitude of holiday to the focus of fall.

And then there were the school supplies. Fresh notebooks, sharp coloured pencils and brand new pens. Colour coded binders with tabs for each subject. No ragged, doodled-on covers, no scratched out mistakes or B grades, no torn corners where the paper had been re-purposed to pass a note in class (this was the pre-text, era remember 😉). The potential contained in all that unmarked paper was just too exciting. You would see new things, think new thoughts, create whole new worlds. (Full disclosure: I still get a buzz from new stationery and art supplies.)

Years later, September still tugs at me as a time to start new projects, transition from summer, and lean into life.

The wallpaper and downloads for the month honour this season of change, marking the fall equinox, and celebrating the golden colors of drying grass and afternoon light.