September

This is my favorite month. Absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite month of the entire year.

I discovered my love for it while in college. September in Costa Mesa and Newport means warm, sunny coastal weather, empty beaches and delicious ocean. It means the start of a new school year, breezy afternoons on coffee shop porches with slanted sunlit spaces. It means cardigans and bike rides on empty beach-town streets. Poetry and art, fire pits and friendship. It contains naps in hammocks lazy painting afternoons.

September in Oxford, England means books and walks through parks. It means lattes at Blackwells and romps in the countryside. Bells ring and leaves begin their journey into beauty. Ice cream walks. Pub nights and theological debates about humanism. There are picnics in meadows and journeys through palaces. September in Oxford brings soft strolls around the libraries to get sandwiches for lunch, with jackets and boots and scarves. Sunday afternoon tea with oranges, cookies and a door propped open to let the fresh air in. Apple scrumping and painting by the river.

In Maryland September means beautiful. Full of hope and life it fills old houses with sweet smells and laughter. It means stinkbugs too. Early mornings with hot tea and chocolate chip pancakes. There are big backyards full of garden wonder, and a cat that lays lazy in the light. Train rides with books and seats full of people. Fresh crab dinners on the back deck, port that pairs perfectly with chocolate chip cookies. Brie cheese with honey and fruit. Salads and potato-leek soup. We wear tights and with skirts and boots there in September. The whole green world hangs suspended in time waiting for the perfect moment to explode with color.

The light of September is different somehow. The sun hangs differently in the sky and and it's warmth inspires me.

This morning it happened. With a cool breeze September arrived.