September and all those mixed feelings

The lake was quiet on Labor Day — four children on the beach, a dad with his little boy in a small boat making one last trip to a fishing spot on the far side, a middle-aged couple walking their dog. The quiet of the lake — close to silence at one point — suggested that most of the vacationers had departed on Sunday. It’s a complex moment for us, Labor Day — the end of something, the start of something; both mournful and expectant.

You can probably recall the eagerness to get back to school, after summer started to slow down and even became a little boring. In a melancholy moment some 40 years ago, I branded August “the Sunday night of the year” because it felt like the last moment of freedom and fun before the return to school or work.

You can probably remember feeling a little sad that another summer had come and gone, and that the summer’s experiences — a job, a lover, a trip, a gathering of family and friends — quickly became memories. You can probably remember having to put away summer things, physical and emotional, and quickly moving on. You felt both the chill of a farewell and the warmth of something good ahead.

The fall will come to the lake; it will be ringed with autumnal colors, and then snow and ice, and the long silence of winter. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves ….