June and July blew through like giddy old friends from out of town. And they made our house feel like home for a while, shared their beautiful memory-making stories. And some heartbreaking, life-changing ones, too. It has been a fast summer, and I don’t want to let go too soon. But today is August.
I do crazy things in August, things like pull out fall smelling candles and start to make soup. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better at not rushing ahead to the next season, and maybe I have in some ways. But this year, I can feel that familiar pull towards autumn, that new shoes and pencils itch, a longing for a schedule that school days brings, hope for a cool blast of air. I should know better, living in North Carolina.We don’t get fall until October. Still, August comes in like a maid and readys the house and all her tenets for the transition. She sweeps under the couch and taps your crossed feet off the coffee table, and as she wipes the surface clean, she whispers Get ready, sweetheart. Change is coming.
Aren’t you thankful for times of transition? We have a Maker who doesn’t just throw the sun up into the sky in a shock of fire, but pulls it up slow every morning and down the same way every night. And if you stare as it happens, the change is hard to see, but if you close your eyes and count to twenty, everything is different when you open them back up again. It’s because a lot happens in the transition, secret things, beautiful things, Spirit led things.
And so I wait for the book to release in a few short weeks, and ask for the Lord to calm me. We look forward to school starting up again, and place any anxiety about it in his hands. I sit with The Man with calendars and fall schedules, and quietly celebrate what every future meeting and event means: that we are living, that we are doing what we love, and that we belong to a community. Prepare us, O Lord, in this month of transition.
How do you feel about August?
I love how you pictured her, August.
I grew up in West Virginia, where August, as hot as she was, really did seem to promise some hope of transition.
But now, in the Boonies of Tennessee, August is a tease. An old, hot, lazy tease. She drops a sly wink, reminding me with the purchase of pencils, paper and notebook, that she used to be teetering on delivering, long about this time of year. But now, she’s too hot to move off her fainting couch. She bids me to remember my childhood…and then says…”Yeah….we won’t be doing THAT”.
Oh, your August has a ‘tude. Love it.
We’re on a similar wavelength again…. Only I’m bossing everyone around to keep funning-it-up in August, and you’re graciously allowing everyone to pull out the candles.
I’m trying to boss myself into funning it up. We do have a month left of the pool, after all.
I ADORE transition…they are my favorite times of the year (and least favorite times of life…although I do kinda love moving into a new place and discovering a new city, but the rest of moving is horrific…) …but anyway…I must admit the “spiced” apple candles are out and I’m looking at my pumpkin patch willing them to grow a little faster
(the tomatoes too, but that is a different story…)
August here is usually the coldest, windiest month of the year. But today was still and sunny – a promise that spring is just around the corner!
I guess this transition is on my mind too… I wrote about the same thing today. Have you ever read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt? She compares this time of year to being at the top of a Ferris Wheel…. that symbol was heavy on my mind this morning. August is full of promises…
How do I feel about August? I welcome it but… I feel like I had no summer. The beginning of June felt summerish with slow mornings and some lazy days, but it all ended too quickly. July was a chaotic blur of busyness. We had no vacation for the third year in a row and I barely had time to go outside, only went to a pool twice all summer. I feel like the summer was all work and no play, but my son was home for most of it and that was the best part.
And now we are at August. Part of me is ready for routine and not feeling like the odd one out, the only one working all the time. But it also means my son won’t be here. And I’m concerned that I’ll burn out way too fast because I had no real summer of sun and beach and fireflies and just letting my hair down to have fun and relax.
This is TMI, but you did ask.
I was JUST saying to my husband how ready I am for fall! (Of course, we live in FL and won’t see fall until November or December!) Thanks for the reminder to appreciate each day.
When did August slip in? I can’t believe it’s already here! If I’m not careful, as the calendar flips so do the feelings of heaviness. That pressure to fit in the last of the summer fun things … before the pool closes and the books are brought back out. But I’m thankful for the last few weeks of ease before the schedule gets tighter.
I LOVE the fall. As August begins and we start preparing for school I find it hard not to push forward to the next thing. Instead of rushing, I need to embrace these last 2 weeks of summer.
August seems like such a strange month to me…especially with no school schedule to speak of, it still feels like summer (I’m in NC too, and it’s definitely still hot), but I agree that it also speaks of transition and promises that fall IS on it’s way, and I am SO ready for it!
I am the opposite….I never rush the fall, fall means I have to go back to work, wake up early, and schedule my days. I LOVE the summer and wish it were 6 months instead of 3! I will be fighting for summer until December….wearing flip flops and short sleeves as long as I can. No soup until November, and iced lattes until October!!!
But things do go by so much faster, you are right, when you close your eyes for just a few seconds, everything changes!
i think we should have new year’s parties in august…..
Living in Florida, I am always ready for fall and the end of this relnetless heat and humidity. But August is hot and humid. It is not until October, when we begin to feel a change in the air, reminding us that we are approaching the most beautiful time of the year for us… Oct – May. I’m ready!! I love the paragraph where you talk about how the Maker does not just throw the sun up every morning.
Please let me quote you. I love this ”It’s because a lot happens in the transition, secret things, beautiful things, Spirit led things.” Beautifully said. I recognize it as I’m in the phase of transition.
I love your perspective. August is full of new beginnings which fill me with apprehension. I am slowly learning to be child like again- to look at new things in a positive and hopeful way. Your playful and thoughtful ways are good. I cant wait for your book.
I’m up in the Seattle area, so we really haven’t even had summer yet! It feels like I’ve gone to this party by myself. May, June and July are there, but I REALLY don’t want to talk to them. And they’re giving me the cold shoulder anyway. But then August walks in, and comes to give me a big warm hug! Today’s high is 77 degrees and that’s about as good as it gets around here this year!
I feel the very same about August. I love how you’ve described her here. I also loved: “We have a Maker who doesn’t just throw the sun up into the sky in a shock of fire, but pulls it up slow every morning and down the same way every night.” Grateful too for transition, and for the way He ushers in new seasons.
August….for years it was being guest services event manager at NFL training camp,keeping an eye on the kidlets at the autograph line so the rude adults who sell their bits on eBay wudnt squish the babies calling patiently for their heroes. “OldMotherHubbard”, the former SecretSvc agent&Dir of Security called me,&teased me about beating him to every radio call “you make me look bad,slow down!”
Making sure my peeps were watered&Gator’d&payroll done properly.And then running to Mom&Dad,whichever hospital or nursing facility&checking the house.Now back&legs are shot&am still in circles,wrapping up all the details of Daddy’s passing,so thrilled a freelancer wants to do his life story in the County paper,trying to protect momma&dementia,and rocking her when I have to remind her Daddy’s not coming back but is still her angel&protector&in her heart.Every August for several years has been a new transition,putting down the dog who saved my life,losing “HeroCat”Himmy that saved daddy’s.I wait for Sept&sweat.
Totally in-between. In between the lazy, relaxed days of summer and the structured, cool days of fall. Wanting to rush forward to planning school days, field trips and fun but wanting to slow back and hold onto pool days, backyard bbq’s and lack of routine. Totally in-between.
Every August has felt different I think, and it doesn’t help the transition along for it to be so stinkin HOT right now.
But this August is extra special because I’ll be full term with this baby by the end of the month. I guess that really is transition, eh?
I’ll say! xoxo
Sometimes I want to hurry fall too, but not this year. Our May was more winter-y than February or March, and summer didn’t show up for realz ’til June. So this August, I am still in a sunscreen-and-chlorine kinda mood! In fact, I’m still in a planting-perennials mood!
So, I’m still plugging my ears and singing “La! La! La!” to August’s transition. Not because I want to wish fall here, but because I want to wish summer to stay! Ha!
Love you, Emily. Happy August to you and yours.
I believe you’ve just changed my perspective on August Emily. After nearly thirty years of living in Texas, I’ve conditioned myself to not even think about fall until September (and even then it is probably a long six weeks away). However, if I’m honest, there is that little pull, those thoughts of a cold front blowing in and wearing sweaters! An empty nest means we don’t have all the anticipation of school, but I find I often wish for an excuse to buy new notebooks and pens and all that fun stuff.
We are on the brink of big change here. You’ve encouraged me to embrace it (I’m one who tends to dread change.). Thank you sweet girl.
You’ve just left me speechless with your lovely post… well, almost. I don’t think I’ve ever been speechless!
I live on the Cumberland Plateau in Tn, so we do have some cooler days before the rest of the state encounters them.
I have already been making autumn themed items for my at-home business and thinking ahead as to where I will put which fall decor item when we gather the boxes from storage and add warm hues of orange and pumpkin and bittersweet to the mix. As hot as it was yesterday, I couldn’t resist making a large pot of homemade chili. Every little thing I do seems to be linked to the coming season and autumn is my favorite season.
4 years of heartaches and drama and trauma and conflicts of amazing varieties during these 31 days of the eighth month fill me with dread. Oh, and the heat of August in Alabama, that’s another reason for my dread.
This year, I am hopeful. I have so very, very much for which to be thankful. I refuse to let the past Augusts haunt me and my family. I choose to remember that August gave me my incredible Godly father and father-in-law, a dear friend. August is also the month when the Lord spared my mother’s life from a benign tumor on her spine. This year, August gets a Mulligan. This year, I will enjoy August and put its previous transgressions behind me.
So, yes, August is also the month when I begin to get ready for my favorite season of the year. I am eager for Fall this year in a way I don’t remember feeling. I can’t wait for a cool, rainy day so I can make chili. I can’t wait for college football Saturdays. I can’t wait for the okra and tomatoes and corn and squash and peppers and watermelons in crazy abundance.
But, really, I can’t wait for it to end. Because our 3rd baby is due in October. Because our 19th anniversary is in September. Because he trees should be beautiful this year, but that won’t be until November here. Because the heat of this summer will be over, won’t it?
Well, August is still Hot-Hot-Hot here. In fact it’s 108 at 6:04 pm and forecast for 110 tomorrow (though we’ve been generally going about 2 degrees above the forecast!!). Sooo, I am LONGING (desperately) for Fall…but it often doesn’t feel like fall here until October
Fall is my favorite season (my 2nd favorite is spring)…but I feel like the fall & spring are getting shorter, summer is getting longer and winter is staying about the same.
I’ll probably start “acting” like it ‘s fall once the temps drop below 90 in September…cuz it’s too hard to wait
My August seems like a house guest that won’t leave….summer still hanging around but the rest of us have to get back into our work routines. It is blazing hot and humid here in Georgia, but the school year has already begun (first day of class today). It is still summer all the way outside, yet everyone has to behave as if it is fall….school clothes, school supplies, even practicing for yet to be football games, and the nightly homework. But it is not the fault of poor August…the school boards are the ones who have thrown the structured routine into beautiful summer. September should be the transition month – not the height-of-summer-August. It reminds me of seeing all the Christmas decorations out in the stores in October….totally confusing.
This month I transition back to full time teaching after being off for 3 years to care for my son who passed last December. I also just had an amazing conference (my 2nd) at She Speaks and on the 7 hour drive home God dropped the outline for my book into my lap! So I register strongly with your feelings over transitions… the excitement of new, apprehension of unknowns, the mourning over that gone by. But we serve a God of hope who promises good so I am trusting his hand to lead through the changes. At the same time I purpose to schedule as much fun into my week as time spent in writing or at school. As I blogged today, post to manifest tomorrow, it’s all about balance.
Thanks for the beautiful picture of the season, your heart, and actually, much of what’s in mine as well.
I have such a love / fear relationship with change and transition. This post is beautiful though…it helps me see it all differently.
Today makes one year that we found out my son and my husband have a rare genetic disorder. It has been a sweet day of thanking God for the wonders He has shown us and praying for more as we move forward with his brain surgery on August 23rd in Boston.
Emily, you write some lovely words – what you wrote about God and the sun is beautiful.
August is still summertime here in the UK. Kids don’t go back to school till September, and sometimes we actually get sunny weather and can have bbqs (I guess you’d call them cookouts), so it’s a time with not much going on – no Bible-study or toddler group to help with at church; it’s a time when one of my best friends celebrates her birthday; it’s a time to relax and enjoy picnics, outdoors, the hills, and reading in the sunshine.
Thanks for the post!
Emily you say it sooo well. You have an amazing ability to make the words dance and play, and be ever so full of life. Thank you.
August. In one word. Bittersweet. It’s a heel-digging-in time for me. I want summer to stay longer. Her light-heartedness is so difficult to release. I don’t want the colder, gray months to come. (And there are so many gray sky days in the northeast – ugh!)
Enjoy August….and her light. That is one thing that is special about August…her changing light. Look for it. Do you see it? Delight in it. I do.
What a lovely post. You have such a way with words and I could really almost smell fall on the horizon. It’s hard not to want to rush through these last dog days of summer so I’m glad you were able to give such a voice to this month and make me slow dance and appreciate it a little more. I have to admit that I’m ready for fall to begin but this will give me pause to try and enjoy August a little bit more. Not just let it rush by. Thanks so much again for the beautiful words.
Have already pre-ordered your book so I can read it again and then share it. I have a list of women that I already want to give it to as a gift
Can’t wait til your book releases as I have been dying to share your words on my blog for the LONGEST time and once it releases I can! Squee!
You completely took the words out of my mouth regarding Aug. Here I sit looking at fall boots on presale, thinking about the sweaters I need to toss and replace, wishing for jeans and my tennis shoes, tired of flip flops. I want a crisp blue sky and a chill in the air. I want lentil soup and roast chicken in the oven. I want the routine of school and the fresh day planners. I want pumpkins on my front porch, and my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, to be here tomorrow.
Funny because in March I am wanting summer tomatoes, flip flops, sand in the back of my car from all of the beach trips, sun freckled noses, the daily laundering of beach towels……
This summer has been HARD, and hot. June and July were not so giddy here. Just determined. When August turned the corner and the sun began dipping a little different back toward the autumn solstice, I breathed a sigh of relief. I don’t have energy to rush the seasons right now, but August always brings a little hope.
And me? I burn the fall candles all year round.