Save September

September!

Who loves September? I do! I do! Garden produce, the brisk morning air, shorter days...all these things whisper of the season to come, while still maintaining glorious Indian Summer afternoons, warm enough to wear flip flops and T shirts. September smells like freshly sharpened pencils, it sounds like football Sundays, (Mondays...and Thursdays. And Saturdays)  and it looks magnificent -- everything seems to take on a golden hue as we hang on to the tail end of summer.

HOWEVER.  Do you know what September is NOT?  It is NOT Jack-o-lanterns, black cats, sticky window decals of skeletons and witch hats, orange lightbulbs, or ghosts hanging from trees -- these items belong to OCTOBER.  On the Friday of Labor Day weekend, I was taking the girls for a walk (it was still August, mind you) and I noticed one of my neighbors had pulled out their beautiful summer flowers and replaced them with mums.  Sad, I thought.  Those geraniums were doing so well this year.  Well, maybe they just wanted to get a head start on their fall landscaping.  Then I noticed pumpkins and gourds artfully displayed around their carefully manicured shrubbery.  I'm running out of excuses.  Certainly you could have left the pumpkins and gourds for a later weekend? They take what, all of five minutes to arrange? My sympathy ended abruptly when I noticed a 3' tall ceramic, light up jack-o-lantern on their front stoop. Two months before Halloween.  62 days, to be exact. That's like displaying Christmas decorations BEFORE HALLOWEEN.

Don't get me wrong.  I love holidays.  I love having reasons to celebrate!  I think we should celebrate more often.  It's Tuesday and Eric's home from work at 5:30?  Let's go for a walk to celebrate!  However, when we are so quick to look forward to the next holiday to celebrate, I think we take away a little of the magic of the day to day.  What's wrong with just enjoying September for what it is--a beautiful, wholesome, holiday-less month. (Save for Labor day, but there's no flag, bunny, egg, basket, stocking, tree, heart, or light show that signifies Labor Day. booooring!)  I understand that September comes off the heels of August, another holiday-less month, so maybe some of you get antsy.  Maybe your lawns are screaming for some commercialization, some CPC (cheap plastic crap) from China. I feel you. It's exciting to get festive.  But we have to rein it in people.  The geraniums are weeping.  The sunflowers deserve their moment in the sun. The leaves are still green and they should be appreciated hanging high in the sky, because soon enough they will be crunching under our feet as we rake our lawns and dissemble our gardens as the heart of fall settles around us. Before you know it, the sun will set by 6pm and you'll be tucked inside your house eating a big bowl of chili and you'll remember...I have to turn on my ceramic, light up jack-o-lantern!  And you should. Because it's October.