Is This You? The Last Quarter of the Year

It is the summer that seems to travel along too quickly. It seems that above all else, the time to spend in the grips of the summer sun comes and goes before a tan has a chance to develop on my appendages. It also seems that just as picnics and water fights and mosquito bites are at their highest point of the season, the season comes to a cold crashing end. But! Yes, a pre-chilly “but.” As fall begins to fall, the land tends to look a bit tired and ready for a rest. Truly, so do most of the people you see this time of the year, mid through late September.

Parents are ready for their offspring to head out to school, to learn, yes, but also to give parents their “pseudo-summer” vacation from the kiddos for the next eight to nine months. Farmers are harvesting the last of the summer month’s growth. Pool cleaners, tree trimmers, landscapers, painters and all those who work like crazy to fit everything into the warmth of the summer months are all taking a deep breath of cooler fall air. 

Now comes the chug-chug-chug to what could be seen as the top of the hill of the year. Just as we get all comfortable in our after-summer seats on this ride of life, we crest the hill and topple over. Topple into the start of the slide to the end of the year. Holy Cats and Kittens Batman! If you thought the summer’s 90 days went by in the blink of an eye, it will seem like a slow boat from China compared to the days to the end of the year. Time will be like seeing a cyclone, a cyclone on steroids gearing up to spin us into that wonderful time of the year known as – the holidays.

Kids really make the holidays, don’t they? Some families do Halloween and some do not. In reality, we all seem to do the candy parts though. Some families do Veterans Day, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, World Kindness Day, and the momma of November – Thanksgiving. Some celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah. We all enjoy the food of those wonderful holidays.

Then…“FOOTBALL!” You thought I was going right into Christmas, didn’t you? Football is such an American tradition with soccer coming in fast and kicking all the way through November.  There are gatherings of all types to put your schedule into high gear. 

Then, yes, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Makes me wonder how in the world can it be slowed down. 

Slow has a meaning of “relaxed, gentle, gradual passing of time.” To keep things on an even keel always takes some form of planning. I do not plan very well. Oh, I used to. Meals, grocery shopping, doctor’s appointments, right down to the best days and time to pick up the mail. Then the holidays would hit and every plan went out the window. Like there was this loud sucking sound taking any resemblance of planning of an orderly day, week, visit, trip. Notes and schedules and writing things down, even using calendars seems to be futile during this last quarter of the year. I have no idea how families with kids of different ages and interests do these last blenders of days. I have however come up with this…

It dawned on me when I was put in the middle of planning a wedding some time ago how to deal with the busyness of it all. It was a big do-dah of an event. Money was spent by the bucketful: flowers, cake, dresses, dinners, parties, family get togethers. Oh! My! A few times it seemed that no matter what got done, there were three more things left to do. Nails were bitten down to the quick. Hair was pulled out and who knows how many Prozac and Valium tablets were downed. Then about ten days before THE BIG DAY, I thought this…

No matter what happens or does not happen – if the flowers open on time or not at all, if the cake knife gets engraved or not, if great granny on the groom’s mother’s side gets the perfect dress or not, if a hundred other things happen or don’t – the wedding will still take place. The couple will be married. The champagne will flow and it will all become a memory.

That’s exactly the way I now look at this last quarter of the year. It will be Halloween, then not. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, then not. If you look at times and dates as coming then going? We can celebrate the goings as much as we can celebrate the comings.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at [email protected]

Really!