Have you ever noticed how many ‘New Years’ there are in any one year? Quite apart from the obvious new start of the 1st January, there is the Easter season with its symbolic ending (Good Friday) and renewal on Easter Day - and then there is this time of year. August, for all our schoolchildren and for many of their families, has been a break; with the ending of the old term there was an ending of the old school year. For those of us who stay at home during August there is always a great sense of winding down, of changed priorities and a slackening of the pace. Our communities feel ‘quiet’ and there is a great sense of everybody drawing a deep breath and looking around them.

I’m writing this on the first day of September as the schools prepare for a new term and we all start to gear ourselves up again for the challenges of a return to work (if we ever stopped) and a ramping up again of the pace of life. For our schoolchildren there are the challenges of increased seniority, of a new school, of school or playschool for the first time. A new academic year, a new start and the inevitable changes for them and for their families – and their schools.

New beginnings are both exciting and sad. Exciting because of the challenge of the unknown and because of the possibilities that are opened up by change. Sad because of the loss of the familiar – old friends perhaps or of ways of doing things, of comfortable routines and ‘safety’. Perhaps simply the passing of a very special time – a time we might have liked to have hung on to.

There is a classic example of this in the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration**. Jesus had taken three of his Disciples up a mountain side to pray; while they were there something extraordinary happened, Jesus’ appearance changed and two figures, Moses and Elijah, joined him and spoke with him. The Disciples were overwhelmed and frightened but still filled with wonder and joy by what they saw. So much so that they wanted to capture the moment, to try to make it permanent. The trouble with such an attempt is that it would have removed the ‘extra’ from ‘extraordinary’ and simply left ‘ordinary’. Such moments are only special because they do not last and because we must move on.

Those Disciples moved on from the Mount of Transfiguration, back to the ordinary and then onwards towards other, many other, new and extraordinary experiences. That is life and that is living and what was true for them is also true for us. Yes, we can be nostalgic about what has been, but we must also look forward with eager anticipation to the future with all its changes and chances. That is living!

Chris Walter

**St. Luke Chapter 9 and verse 28. Notice how Jesus too has to return to the ordinary!