I have always felt that September was much more like “New Year’s Day” than January 1^st. Going back to school, I had a pile of brand new notebooks, all of their pages blank with potential. Pencils and crayons of all colours were sharpened to a fine point. I was ready and motivated to make my mark.   Of course, I had a brand new eraser too, should there happen to be any false starts. But as I sat in a classroom with a new teacher, and new classmates, anything I had done or not done in the past no longer counted. I had the chance to start over from scratch, establishing brand new relationships. Here was a new beginning! 

So, while we all hate to see summer slip past us, the way I see it, September is not the end. It’s actually the time to plan for the next cycle. Does September mark the start of something new for you? Maybe your “baby” has just started school? Or, with your “baby” now in college or university, you may be “empty-nesting”. Maybe you’re going back to school yourself, or would like to. What are the new beginnings you would like to make in your life right now? Imagine you have a brand new notebook, filled with blank pages; and that it represents the next chapter of your life. How would you like to fill it? How will you write that story? 

While you’re out buying the kids’ school supplies, why not pick up a scribbler for yourself! Start jotting down your dreams, daydreams, ideas, wishes, hopes, goals, plans. Reach back and recapture those bits of you that you may have let go of earlier in your life, but for which you just might have room now. Start exploring what it is that may have got in the way. What can you do about that? What’s different now?  

Thoughts like these can get tangled up in the tedium of day-to-day life and, in that confusion, may not seem worth exploring. But that would be a mistake! Capture them on paper, where it’s so much easier to sort out the threads. Use your pen to spin those threads. And, in time, that’s where you’ll find the gold! 

If you’d like some help with that “journaling” process, some new techniques to help you get to the gold, join us for a Journal to the Self ® workshop, starting soon! 

Journal to the Self ® Workshops
at The Black Goose restaurant in Wallaceburg
4 weeks: Your choice: evening or daytime:
6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 12 to Oct. 3, or
1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays, Sept. 13 to Oct. 4 

Due to the "intimate" nature of this workshop, the group will be small. Don't wait too long! Sign up now! For more info, contact C-Change at (519) 436-6214 or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it