Fall is a chance to begin again. For students who may have sputtered through last spring, or teachers for that matter whose endurance did not quite eek out at full capacity to the very last math class in June, September is an opportunity for a clean slate.

 

Once upon a time many of us had wall calendars, with soothing pictures of the ocean, or flowers, or in my case quilts. Twelve times a year we had the satisfaction of ripping off the previous month, along with its shortcomings and missed deadlines, to begin afresh. 

 

All of these divisions are arbitrary, it turns out. The difference between grades is more incremental than we make it out to be. Perhaps it is like an escalator instead of a high speed elevator, from which you step out and are abruptly more mature. 

 

Still it is reassuring to me to have these pauses, however imaginary, in which I can assess where I have been and where I go next. Having recently returned to my job, the one I left for a mere month, it is surprising to me to feel renewed. I care as much as I ever did. Choosing can happen over and over in a relationship, or home, or position. 

 

God knows this. He invented the propensity. Yet I can be lulled into the illusion that maybe God took joy in me sixty five years ago, when I was a fresh newborn, but that expired when I started to throw tantrums. Yet, this passage suggests that he still cares. 

 

"You have not chosen me. I have chosen you." John 16