When all six of our kids were living at home, I’d be so frazzled by the end of summer vacation that on the first day of school, I’d want to shout, “Get out your pompoms!”

I don’t feel that same sense of relief these days. The end of summer only brings nostalgia that there are no school supplies to buy and no pencils to sharpen. (Do kids still sharpen pencils? Do they still even use pencils?)

Yet as my friend Amanda reminded me, “the start of a school year always brings on positive changes.” New books, new beginnings, new clothes, new shoes, new clothes, new shoes, and new clothes and new shoes. Oops! My bad! Just getting wound up there…

On a serious note, autumn is the time to reflect and start all over again. Trees lose their leaves and if you’re dealing with new changes, the trees are the perfect reminder that we have to shed our old leaves – our old “stuff” to begin again.

Sometimes that means letting go of old relationships that are no longer healthy or old habits that don’t serve us anymore. We can’t start anything new until we let go of the old. We have to close one chapter before we can begin another.

Amanda wrote me that she is going to start this season “with a smile on my face and a kick in my step. I’m going to strip away all those leaves that bring me down.”

What will you choose to lose today? What little change can you make to encourage you to start something new?

Trees Shed Their Leaves and Start Again-Why Shouldn't We?