What is a new year?

To my surprise, summer is ending again before I felt like it started. I'm beginning to see this as a function of getting older. Children seem to experience a summer as endless but there does seem to be a speeding up that happens as we get older. Have a look at a book on this very subject.  

My point, however, is not so much about age, but about the feeling I get in September. It feels much more like a new year than that cold day in January ever did. Many of my colleagues agree. Our lives are very much organized by the academic year and by the fact that here in Canada at least, summers are precious. Many of us have significant holidays in the summer; we relax, contemplate, play and generally our busy schedules are left behind for a while.

But September arrives full of plans, projects; my calendar fills up with meetings and events; my psychotherapy practice feels different somehow and things feel renewed, if not actually new. I resolve to be various ways, do various things. I set myself tasks and goals and spend a lot of time wondering how I'm going to get everything done. We speak of January 1 as if it meant all this, but in practice it feels like this is the time of renewal. Perhaps we have finally separated ourselves from the seasons and have created a new cycle for ourselves - or at least new seasons. 

So I guess I'm saying "Happy New Year"!