Dear readers: I’m taking a break from posting until after Labor Day in order to work on final edits for my new book and plan for upcoming projects. This blog may have a home at another address; I will also be blogging in other locations. I promise to let you know if you’ll let me know the best way to keep you up to date (if you’re on Facebook or you have Google Reader or use RSS, it’s easy. If what I just wrote has you puzzled or terrified, we’ll need to talk).
Beginning about this time of year, I find I’m on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Some of that is fairly recent, the result of the forever after anniversary that can’t help but bring back, if not the pain itself, then the memories of that pain. Much of it these days relates to my awareness that much more of my own time is behind me than ahead of me; just the thought of being in “the autumn of my years” could bring me unaccountably low.
But ingrained in me is the sense that autumn is a time of transition; not the beginning of the end, but the beginning of something else. Autumn is part of a cycle, one we all experience differently, depending on where we are, who we are, and how we look at what we’re doing. It’s as possible to transition to something more meaningful, more remarkable, or more significant than it is to do anything else.
The secret to my autumn, I’m beginning to understand, is to focus on what can be done. Gone is gone, past is past, and the future is unpredictable. So I go into September as always, with a flexible game plan and a set of goals, which include staying aware, alert and curious about what is to come. Hey, you never know.
See you in September. 
1 Woman' s Vu by Nikki Stern 
Lie fallow for awhile said the country boy to the city girl. (If you don’t know what that means, no need to talk, just vegetate.). I’m working hard on Big Deal.
Con, I get fallow: I’m originally from Wisconsin and my uncle owned a farm. Not only that, I was in “The Fantastics” – oh wait, we sang “follow, follow, follow” – whoops (LOL). Anyway, glad to know you’re keeping out of trouble. I’ll be obeying my editor (maybe) , breathing deeply and returning to Open Salon soon 🙂
September 11 is my birthday, as well as the anniversary of the murder of your husband and thousands of other innocent people. I gratefully cling to your perspective, because it is the only thing that helps me to make sense of being here now. Many thanks for your compassionate wisdom – blessings on the book and you.
Dear Maura: My prodigious reading this summer has reminded me that there are anniversaries in early September (Katrina), late December (Lockerbie), early April (Oklahoma City), late April (Columbine) and every other month of the year, just as there are birthdays. You’re here because you’re here, as we used to sing at camp – and I, for one, am very pleased that you are.
I’m looking forward to that book and eagerly await your return online.
My ragweed allergies are already reminding me that autumn is also quite a time of fervent pollination. May this be as a productive and nourishing time for you as it is for the Asteraceae – the genus to which ragweed belongs – whose name is derived from the Ancient Greek term for the delicacy of the gods, ambrosia.
Excellent pov. One of my great joys is to have so many supremely well-read and intelligent friends. How nice to know that even as my infernal sinuses tighten, I might still celebrate the sweetness that comes from a creative pollination of my own. Many thanks for showing me another way to look at autumn.
Nikki, I am so glad I’ve found your blog. In my past life at our old firm, I always enjoyed your writing and now that I’ve discovered your blog, I, again, get a great deal of enjoyment out of your insightful, humorous, and informative style of writing. I look forward to your return to the web and, as I have done for the last eight years, I’ll be thinking about you the day after tomorrow.
hearing from old friends is wonderful. Thanks for visiting and thanks for the thoughts. I’ll post tomorrow and then – we’re off and running!
I just wanted to say, you really being the only individual I know (even though it via blogging) who was affected up close and personal by 9/11, that you were on my mind numerous times yesterday. I’m very sad for the horror and sadness that you have had to endure and just wanted to let you know.
thanks, Alan. any and all of your comments are welcome on here.