With August’s passing we enter into the first of the months named for numerals: September. Sept, for seven, for it once was the seventh month of the year. What follows is October, named for eight, November, named for nine, and December, named for ten. Which was all well and good for a long time, but we have twelve months in our year now. Things don’t mean what they once did, but that can be said about a lot of things, no?
These months are also known as Ember Months, which I like. One etymological theory is they are called Ember Months for they end mostly with “-ember,” though October is a bit of a stretch… but still, you can sense the “emberness” about it. And that, perhaps, dips into the other etymological theory of the Ember Months: Much like the embers that glow as a fire is going out, so the relationship to the closing months of the year, which are fast approaching.
All of this is difficult to fathom when the daily high temperatures are still in the 90s, but here in Lake Worth, at least, it’s lately no longer mid-90s, but low-90s, and sometimes it’s even in the 80s. Summer is not long for this world, and we get pretty happy here about that around this time of year. We are all a bit punch drunk on summer by now, those of us who live in this strange green land.
And so it is September and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for the month. It is, as usual, a printable PDF, so you needn’t look at it just on a screen. You can print it out on paper and tack it to your bulletin board, to your refrigerator, to the cellar door. Our cover star this month is an 1895 painting by Benjamin Haughton. It’s called Michaelmas, which is the old celebration that comes near the end of the month: St. Michael’s Day, the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. It opens a time of angelic pondering, for it’s not just Michael the Archangel we remember, but all angels. And angels exist in cultures around the globe. I always think of this day, too, as the start of a bridge that ends with October 2 and the Feast of the Guardian Angels. This transition from September to October is a good time, I think, to read books about angels (like this one, or perhaps this one), and to watch films about angels (like Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire), and to listen to music about angels (like Jane Siberry’s Calling All Angels––which, though it be her most famous song, hasn’t an official video). A good time, too, to meditate and ask who is your guardian angel. I did once, and the name Pedro was revealed to me. I think of Pedro whenever someone pulls in front of me as I’m driving, forcing me to slow down. The initial thought of course is to shake my fist and shout an expletive or two, but then I think, “No. Perhaps this is Pedro, keeping me from some unknown danger ahead.” A danger only my guardian angel knows. And if I think of it further, I nod an acknowledgment ahead. “Thank you for that grace. Thank you for keeping me well. Thank you for watching over me.”
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OPEN SHOP DAYS
Thank you to all who came to our Third Annual Bartlemas Wayzgoose two weekends ago and on Monday night, the 24th of August. It was a really wonderful time. Our first time opening the shop on a Monday and I was truly amazed at how many of you showed up. Thank you. It means a lot.
We’ve no set dates yet for our next open days at the shop, but certainly we need to hold an early Boo Bazaar for Hallowe’en shopping in September, and perhaps one in October, though you know things get crazy for us come October, as we set up our annual Convivio Bookworks pop-up shop at the German American Social Club in Miami for Oktoberfest Miami. We always have a grand time with our friends there! It’s the oldest Oktoberfest in the State of Florida: the 69th annual this year.
SEPTEMBER WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
There are just two seats left in our next workshop: True Stories Cleverly Told: Exploring Creative Nonfiction for Narrative, Essay, & Memoir with writer and literary agent Cricket Freeman, on Saturday September 19. Cricket is one of our favorite people in the literary world. She and I met several years ago at a weeklong writers’ workshop in Gainesville and Cross Creek, Florida, at the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, called “Writing the Region.” The experience of both the workshop and meeting Cricket transformed my writing. You will learn a lot! Cricket’s workshop is a full-day class that includes a delicious box lunch from one of our favorite local spots, Aioli in West Palm Beach. Class limit is 8 people; just 2 seats remain. If you love writing, I encourage you to do this.
Image: Michaelmas by Benjamin Haughton. Oil on canvas, 1895 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].
