This was the status of a friend who is a Libra like me.
As I wrote the date in my journal this morning, I felt a familiar pang of "October already?" In other years, I've made banal comments to strangers and coworkers about how quickly time goes, how hard it is to believe, how wistful I am about the whole thing. Working with very young children really exacerbates this sensation. Sometimes I'll look at a photo I took just a month or two ago, and be stunned by how much the child has stretched out, her face taken more shape, her vocabulary and physical strength increased in that short time. Children are never disappointed that time moves on.
Today, when I wrote the date, instead of feeling time hustling me forward, I cheered it on a little. "Yes!" I thought. "Go to bed, 2010. It's nearly time for you to be done." This has been a rich, full year (and it's not even over yet!) but it's also held a lot of pain for my family, friends and I. So I'm not clinging to it today, or bemoaning it's passage, I'm embracing the natural process of falling away. I think about the darkness in the evening, the chill in the wind (not today... not this week, actually, but I swear I got to wear wool socks once in September) the apples and squashes piled on my table and I am happy. I'm like a bear going sleepily into hibernation, a rose dying back, just ready for the wind and snow and darkness to come. Then in a little while, I'll be ready for the sun again, and for a new year to begin.
