Before September Fills Itself…
There’s something about the beginning of September that always feels quietly hopeful.
The summer holidays begin to fade into memory. Children head back to school. The roads seem a little busier again. Diaries start to fill and familiar routines gently find their way back.
Almost without noticing, life begins gathering pace.
I found myself thinking about that the other morning as I unlocked the door to my Wellness Cabin.
I'd arrived a little earlier than usual before my first client. I closed a few of the blinds for privacy, switched on my diffuser and watched the first wisps of calming fragrance drift gently through the room. Soon there would be relaxing music playing softly in the background, but for now, there was just the quiet.
As I looked around to make sure everything was ready, my eyes settled on a few things that had quietly accumulated over time.
Nothing particularly important.
Just a few items that had found a home simply because I'd never really stopped to question whether they still needed one.
As I picked one up, I asked myself a simple question.
Does this still deserve a place here?
It was only afterwards that I realised I'd been asking versions of that same question quite a lot recently.
Not just in my Wellness Cabin.
In my work.
At home.
In the way I organise my week.
Even in the expectations I place on myself.
Over the past few months, I've found myself simplifying.
You probably wouldn't notice it from the outside.
There are still lovely Qigong classes to teach, clients to welcome, Dougal and Rosie gently reminding me it's time for a walk, washing that somehow never quite reaches the wardrobe without spending at least one night at the foot of the bed, and the familiar daily question of what's for dinner. I’m sure you can relate.😄
Life still looks wonderfully ordinary.
Yet something has shifted.
Looking back, I don't think it happened all at once.
Somewhere over the past six months, I've gradually stopped filling every available space simply because it was there.
I've become a little more intentional about what I carry forward.
As I reflected on this, it struck me that the questions I ask myself these days are quite different from the ones I might have asked twenty years ago.
Back then, I might have wondered how I could fit one more thing into the day.
Now I'm more likely to wonder whether it needs to be there at all.
I don't see that as getting older.
I see it as getting clearer.
Perhaps that's one of the quiet gifts that arrives as the years pass.
Not that we suddenly have all the answers.
It’s more that we become a little better at recognising what really matters.
And perhaps what no longer does.
As September settles in, many of us will naturally slip back into familiar routines.
Some will bring us joy.
Some will support us.
Some will simply be part of life.
And perhaps there are one or two things that have quietly stayed with us long after they've stopped adding anything at all.
September has a way of inviting us into a new rhythm.
Not a complete fresh start.
Just a gentle pause before life gathers speed again.
A chance to notice what we'd like to carry with us into this new season.
Perhaps it's enough to pause every now and then and quietly ask:
Is this still serving me?
It might be a commitment.
A habit.
A way of spending your evenings.
The pace you've come to accept as normal.
Or perhaps it will be something entirely different.
You don't have to answer the question today.
I think some of life's most helpful questions aren't the ones we answer straight away.
They're the ones we quietly carry with us for a while.
As the mornings here in Aberdeenshire become a little cooler and the light begins its gentle shift towards autumn, that's the question I'll be carrying into this new season.
September will fill itself. It always does.
Perhaps the invitation is simply to become a little more intentional about how we choose to live within it.
Breathe & Believe 💫
Lorraine