Before the Year Ends

September

September has always been a beautiful month for me.

Give me a new best friend and there’s a good chance I’ll eventually discover they were born in September. Maybe I’m biased, but there has always been something about this month that feels different. It feels like a pause. A quiet exhale before the final stretch of the year begins.

So far, this year has moved so quickly that, honestly, I could barely keep up. There have been so many things to do, places to be, decisions to make, things to figure out and moments to process. Sometimes I’ve felt like I was simply moving from one thing to the next without having enough time to actually sit with everything that was happening.

But September has always given me room to reflect.

I came back from Nigeria with a certain kind of energy. I was pumped. I felt refreshed, motivated and ready to get things moving again. And almost immediately, life picked up speed.

The first week back was already a weekend away with my friends. I started a new role at my company. I began looking into new ways to invest and be more intentional about my finances and the future I’m building. I found my way back to certain spiritual disciplines I had missed and, slowly, I got back on track with my walk with God.

Actually, the first few weeks of September were filled with me looking for certain confirmations.

I had questions I had been carrying for a while. Some things I had prayed about. Some things I needed clarity on. Some things I simply wanted to know if I was imagining or if God was actually nudging me in a particular direction.

And somehow, I got the confirmations I was looking for.

Not always in the dramatic, unmistakable way we sometimes expect God to speak. Sometimes it was subtle. Sometimes it came through conversations, circumstances, timing or the quiet knowing that something had finally clicked.

September reminded me that confirmation doesn’t always come with fireworks.

Sometimes, it just comes with peace.

Of course, not everything about September was beautiful.

There was the red hair, for one. 😂

I walked around with a shade of red that was very much not what I had in mind. But honestly, that wasn’t even close to the least favourite thing that happened to me this month.

I woke up one morning with injuries on my neck that looked like I had been strangled. It was frightening to look at, and what initially seemed like something that would pass eventually progressed through several stages of burns over the following weeks.

There were moments when I wondered what was happening to my body and, if I’m being honest, moments when fear could have easily taken over.

But it didn’t.

I am incredibly grateful for healing.

I’m grateful that my body recovered. I’m grateful that something that could have consumed my thoughts didn’t become the centre of my life. And I’m grateful for the reminder that sometimes you can go through something scary without allowing fear to become your permanent residence.

September also brought me back to something I had tucked away for months: gratitude journaling.

I had stopped writing in it. It had been sitting quietly on one side, almost forgotten, while life continued to happen. But I picked it up again.

And perhaps I needed it more than I realised.

There is something powerful about deliberately writing down what is good when your brain is naturally drawn towards what is missing, uncertain or unresolved.

So I started paying attention again.

The little things.

The big things.

The answered prayers.

The people.

The opportunities.

The ordinary mornings.

The fact that I get to wake up and try again.

I also got to celebrate some of the incredible women God has placed in my life.

Women who have loved me, supported me, prayed for me, laughed with me, challenged me and reminded me of who I am. Sometimes we get so caught up in the business of our own lives that we forget to pause and appreciate the people who make the journey lighter.

September gave me the opportunity to do that.

To celebrate them.

To celebrate friendship.

To celebrate growth.

To celebrate the woman I am becoming.

More than anything, September felt like a month of recalibration.

I didn’t feel the need to have everything figured out.

I took work one step at a time. I started getting regular hours of sleep again. I allowed myself to rest without feeling like I needed to earn it first. I became a little more intentional about my time, my relationship with God, my finances, my friendships and, perhaps most importantly, myself.

Rest has been an interesting lesson for me.

There is a version of me that always wants to be doing something. Planning something. Fixing something. Thinking about the next thing. But September reminded me that not every season needs to be productive to be valuable.

Sometimes you just need to rest.

Sometimes you need to sleep.

Sometimes you need to sit still long enough to realise that you are actually okay.

And maybe that is what I needed September to be.

Not a month where everything was perfect.

Not a month without unexpected things.

Not a month where I had all the answers.

Just a month where I could slow down enough to notice that, despite everything, I am still here.

Still growing.

Still healing.

Still becoming.

Still loved.

Still learning.

Still walking with God.

And somehow, that is enough.

September is ending now, and I can already feel the cold creeping back in.

The days are getting shorter. The evenings are getting darker. The warmth of summer is slowly disappearing, and the year is beginning to fold itself into its final pages.

There are only a few months left.

And for once, I don’t feel the pressure to rush through them.

I want to take them one day at a time.

I want to be present.

I want to finish the year grateful, not exhausted.

I want to keep making plans, but also leave room for God to interrupt them.

I want to keep showing up for the people I love.

I want to keep choosing rest.

I want to keep writing.

I want to keep noticing the little things.

And perhaps most importantly, I want to remember that a year doesn’t have to go exactly according to plan for it to still be a good year.

September gave me space to look back.

To look around.

To look within.

And now, as the cold slowly returns, I’m stepping into the final stretch of the year with a little more gratitude, a little more peace, and a much greater appreciation for the fact that sometimes the most beautiful thing you can do is simply pause and realise how far you’ve come.