18 Asma’ 168 B.E. (Baha’i Calendar)
Soundtrack in my head:  The Church, “A Different Man”

There is always a stretch of a few days sometime in September when the wind more than just blows and where the clouds do more than just pass over.  It’s a time when a mixture of gray and white clouds seem to sweep the sky, leaving in its wake a blue sky with a deeper blue hue.  The wind tends to blow a bit colder, making the air cooler, crisper, and cleaner. 

from Dreamstime free downloadsIt feels like the air is more than just cooling–it is churning, rearranging the elements and preparing the way for autumn.  It is a bit unusual for this to happen on Labor Day weekend–often it’s a week or two later.  Nevertheless, it’s mesmerizing, calming and peaceful, and the three days off work have allowed me to feel present enough to thoroughly enjoy it. 

It seems to be timing itself with a number of other changes going on in my life at the same time.  I had orientation and my first class in graduate school within the last week.  We have new people living in the house and it seems cleaner in general than it has in a long time.  The attic room we’d been working on for the better part of two years is now usable, and serving as a wonderful little retreat space. 

Lots of other little things are conspiring and arranging themselves in a way as if to say “Wake up, wake up! Do you know what it means to be alive right now?”