Today it begins

This is Labour Day, the real end to summer and the beginning of the rush to the New Year. It's a bit of a mystery, this seasonal burst of energy and tension. Nothing will be different tomorrow: everything will be different tomorrow. We will sit on patios and wonder each time if it is the last time for 2010. We will make phone calls expecting that everyone, everywhere is at work.

Think for a moment about what an act of will power or distortion it took for us to get here. Fall is, naturally, an ending to the year, a gentle (then less gentle) winding down. It is a time for exuberant harvest and long evenings munching apples and telling stories. It is the time when we are almost - but not quite - ready to curl up near a fireplace and allow our thoughts to drift inside as the snow drifts outside.

As you look forward today, marvel at the power of the human mind that changes endings into beginnings.

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