A Fresh Start

Photo | Courtesy of The Blush Society, photographed by Caitlyn Steuben

The leaves have yet to change but there is already a crispness in the air that indicates the start of fall.

In the morning, cool turns skin to gooseflesh; though it brings a freshness that indicates more than a drop in temperature. It is as if the atmosphere has shifted. The air carries a new weight it lacked during the summer months; each molecule vibrates with new, excited energy.

There is something about the arrival of fall that leaves us tingling. It is more than the excitement of pumpkin spice lattes, there is a sense of change that is impossible to see, hard to define, and yet palpable. Perhaps F. Scott Fitzgerald put it best in The Great Gatsby, "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

If you are like me, autumn makes you crave newness. As the leaves change, animals enter hibernation, and summer flowers die, so too, do bad habits. At least, that is the goal.

A few weeks ago I attended the launch of a local women’s group, The Blush Society. I had modeled for the club in the past and found myself energized by their tenacity. I arrived to the event exhausted from my day job and housework, grew animated by the event's turnout, found myself awestruck by the entrepreneurial women surrounding me, left inspired, and ended the evening by crying on my bedspread.

At the launch I met women who had turned their hobbies into careers and passions into profits. I ached to do the same.

It took The Blush Society to make me realize that autumn’s arrival had prickled a longing for change within me. I craved a shift in habits, a “new life,” if you will.

Following my post-launch-party cry, I decided September was to be my month of planning and altering habits. I decided to work on my sleep, my time management, monetizing my passions, and more. Which brings me to the blog theme for next two months: a fresh start.

We could all use a mid-year reorganization of our lives. What better way to do it than together? These next few months The Keen Kind will focus on the tools and methods you need to take your goals head on. Expect posts on work-life balance, introspection, passions turning into careers, restarting your life, improving yourself, happiness over monotony, success stories from others, and more.

Stay tuned. Together we’ll wrestle down our responsibilities, needs, and wants, and rearrange them to get the most out of our days.

Here’s to fall, whose crispness welcomes revisions. Here’s to badass women, who inspire us to do more and seek joy.

-grace