September Song
Also books, a poem, and some thoughts about a month that stirs (or disturbs) the soul
Before we begin…
How does September make you feel? My body’s internal clock is set for change and movement at this time of year but I’m wondering if I need to reset it.
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September Doesn’t Feel The Way It Used To
September arrived this week but I am still waiting for that tingle of anticipation that always made Labor Day feel like New Year’s day ought to feel. After more than 20 years in Southern California, I no longer expect the snap of cool night air, bushels of freshly-picked apples in the stores, or that sense of urgency when I notice the sun setting so much sooner than it did just last week.
Still, September has always brought with it that “back-to-school” sense of possibility that seems to have guided most of my major life events. Years ago a former colleague glanced at my resume and noticed a pattern. Almost every job I held between graduating from college until I began working for myself started in September. Then there were the milestones not captured on my resume: breakups, reconciliations, new partners; a surprising number of my significant relationships began, ended, or resumed during the month of September. More recently, September meant that it was time to travel.
There are few changes on my horizon this September. I’m not looking for a new job or relationship. Travel plans are on hold for a while longer yet. My novel continues to progress at a glacial pace but completely absorbs me when I’m not writing to you, walking the dogs, or thinking about why my life doesn’t hold any changes for me this September.
I am content but I am also wistful, settled but also restless.
The heat of summer lingers on but the light is changing. Last evening, I noticed that sunset came earlier than it had last week and, this morning, dawn arrived later. The days of September still offer beauty, possibility but they are short. They always were.
What about you? What memories or feelings does this month evoke for you? Is there another time of year that resonates in a particular way for you?
Books!
While you are thinking about that, here are 10 books that will arrive this month that Bethanne Patrick thinks you should read. If you are not familiar with Bethanne, check out her brief but intriguing interview with Elizabeth Held of What to Read If…
Her list includes a few that I am adding right now to my TBR list:
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery - this collection of linked stories is getting a lot of attention and I want to find out why.
Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer – this is a sequel to Greer’s novel Less which I loved for its wit, heart, and the twist at the end. I loved how Greer kept me guessing who the narrator was right up to the last chapter.
Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout – I will read this because I have read all the Lucy Barton novels by Strout and would feel incomplete if I didn’t read this. This one puts Lucy and William, her ex-husband, alone together in Maine during the pandemic. Strout is one of those writers I will always read whether I love the book or not. I learn (or try to) with every page.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton - this is a graphic memoir, a genre that was new to me until this summer and one that captivates me. The story covers Beaton’s journey at age 21 from Cape Breton to working in Alberta’s oil fields.
Just finished…
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I have never understood the lure of video games but I understand the lure of a good story. So did the protagonists of this wonderful novel which is what made them icons in the world of gaming. That world becomes the backdrop for the relationship between Sam Masur and Sadie Green who meet as children, reconnect in their twenties, and become partners in their gaming company that becomes popular beyond anything they’d imagined.
The business ties them together but also pushes them apart. Through Sam and Sadie, we are introduced to a new kind of love story – one that takes unexpected and sometimes painful turns and asks us to consider all the forms love can take. It is impossible to root for one character over the other. The story spans years but the pages seem to turn themselves, a testament to Zevin who invites the reader in from the very first line and doesn’t let them go. This was the first book I’d read in a long time that I couldn’t wait to finish but hated to put down when I reached the end. As a byproduct, I came away with a little more understanding about the common ground shared by novels and video games, something Zevin herself emphasized in this interview with Publisher’s Weekly.
A September Poem
Here’s a poem that, for me, captures the feel of September in a way I can almost taste.
September Tomatoes by Karina Borowicz
The whiskey stink of rot has settled in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises when I touch the dying tomato plants. Still, the claws of tiny yellow blossoms flail in the air as I pull the vines up by the roots and toss them in the compost. It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready to let go of summer so easily. To destroy what I’ve carefully cultivated all these months. Those pale flowers might still have time to fruit. My great-grandmother sang with the girls of her village as they pulled the flax. Songs so old and so tied to the season that the very sound seemed to turn the weather.
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That’s it for this week. Let me know you are and what you’re reading. If there’s an idea, book, or question you’d like to see in an upcoming issue of Spark, let us know! Use the comment button below or just hit reply to this email and send your message directly.
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Ciao for now.
Gratefully,
Betsy
P.S. And now… your moment of Zen: These precious days
Calling for Your Contribution to “Moment of Zen”
What is YOUR moment of Zen? Send me your photos, a video, a drawing, a song, a poem, or anything with a visual that moved you, thrilled you, calmed you. Or just cracked you up. This feature is wide open for your own personal interpretation.
Come on, go through your photos, your memories or just keep your eyes and ears to the ground and then share. Send your photos/links, etc. to me by replying to this email or simply by sending to: elizabethmarro@substack.com. The main guidelines are probably already obvious: don’t hurt anyone -- don’t send anything that violates the privacy of someone you love or even someone you hate, don’t send anything divisive, or aimed at disparaging others. Our Zen moments are to help us connect, to bond, to learn, to wonder, to share -- to escape the world for a little bit and return refreshed.
I can’t wait to see what you send!
my body tells me it's the season of slowing down, less of everything, and relaxing into it
For me, September has always had that end of summer / back to whatever vibe, but with caveat. Growing up in Los Angeles you don’t really experience the seasons changing the way most of the country does. It’s still hot, the leaves don’t change, and the days still feel like long summer days. Aside from the shift from summer to school or summer hours at work back to regular hours, September always felt like a bit of a lie to me. Magazines and TV talk about the fall, but the experience is kind of alien to life in Southern California. I spent my college years in Connecticut and a few years after that in New York,and that’s when fall really clicked for me. Actually, I think I like September better on the east coast. But one shift I do like is that I tend to switch up my reading habits. For whatever reason I read a lot of nonfiction in the summer. September is when I start to shift back to fiction. I just finished Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein and I’ll probably read Reaganland next. But after that I’ll probably pick up a novel.