by Diana Pasquini, San Juan Ridge Family Resource Center

Although our calendars mark a new year commencing in January, for a student the New Year has just begun. New shoes, new clothes, new pencils, new teachers, new hopes and dreams are endemic as kids transform into students when they cross school thresholds. New friendships are made and old ones, renewed. New skills are learned. New ideas, shared. New experiences abound. Schedules return to a familiar pattern. No more sleeping in, then moseying on down to the Yuba to for a leisurely splash in its refreshingly cool waters. Families are back on track.

School families are not the only ones who are embarking upon the beginning of a new, yet familiar, cycle. True harbingers of autumn, the sandhill cranes are returning. Their trumpeting reminds us that Fall is surely on her way. Soon autumn rains will soften the earth, awaken seeds, and renew the greenness of fields and meadows. Squirrels are reveling in the abundance of pine nuts and acorns. Leaves are subtly turning shades of red and yellow as they prepare to freshly carpet the forest floor. The trees, the birds, the squirrels know that this is a time of great change, a time of ending and of beginning. The end of summer and the beginning of fall is pivotal for all that inhabit our beautiful foothill home. We’re off on a new cycle, preparing for shorter days and cooler nights as high overhead the cranes’ songs wish us a Happy New Year.