The Space Between Summer and Change
Why I’m holding onto August while getting ready for my next chapter
Sometimes, most times, I know what I want to write about in the week or days leading up to when a newsletter is due to come out. This week was no different, except it was. I couldn’t get it right no matter how much I worked on it. Today, I realized why — it wasn’t the right time. Just last week, in Oh, Heather, I wrote about savoring August and not rushing the end of summer. Yet what I was writing about had everything to do with September and beyond. I was contradicting myself. So I left it as a draft.
And I am staying in summer mode for the next couple of weeks. And I am going to focus on something I heard today in a Peloton class with Tunde:
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I’ve heard this saying before, but today it felt like Tunde was talking directly to me. Maybe because I am a believer in change, or maybe because it was exactly what I needed to hear on the precipice of some big changes I have coming up. And it felt like a validation of my decisions.
Thursday was the final episode of Season 2 of A Place of Yes, and I have spent a lot of time reflecting not only on the work and the actual episodes, but on next steps. What should I do? Should I keep going? Should I stop? What is the right choice as it pertains to Jake’s Help From Heaven? I have spent a lot of time this summer reflecting on it all, having many conversations and thinking (overthinking) all the different scenarios.
I love using the summer months to reflect, and using September as a time for action. Reflection leads to action. Action leads to change. Change is both necessary and good. Not all change, though — not change just for the sake of change, but thoughtful change. Even when it is scary, and even when it requires hard conversations and difficult decisions. You won’t regret the conversations you had, but you may regret the ones you don’t have. I have learned to stop avoiding the hard conversations and difficult decisions. Once upon a time, I avoided these things. But now I welcome them. I find them freeing. And they help me figure out the ideas and what I want out of this life, and how to get it.
Sometimes these are big things. Sometimes they are small. Sometimes I think it has to do with turning 50. And sometimes I think it was always there, or at least since Jake died.
So while I am embracing the last few weeks of summer, I am also excited for the upcoming weeks. I am excited to learn more and share more of my next chapter. I often think of post–Labor Day life as the real time for resolutions instead of January. If you want things to be different, you need to get them done.
What changes do you have in store for your last chapter of 2025? I want to know!
XO,
Heather