Labour Day is fast approaching and summer is winding down. While I realize that summer officially carries on to September 21, our social perception of summer tends to wrap up with Labour Day weekend. Kids head back to school, new projects start up and summer-holidaying, long-weekend-taking folks return to work “in a serious way”. For many of us, September provides more sense of renewal and new beginnings than New Year’s Day. It also means a shift in how we socialize.
I love summer, especially given that I live well above the equator, in a place that experiences four distinct seasons. But where I live, spring, summer and fall all move through quite quickly. Spring is here for May and June, summer visits in July and August, then fall flies in for September and October. Winter is the show around these parts — it rules from November to April — which is a good thing when your primary economy is as a winter tourism destination. But that long winter serves to make our short summers all the more precious.
It’s not just the warmth and sunshine that I love about summer — it’s the way our social energy changes. In the winter, people tend to hibernate. In summer, people live much of their lives outdoors. You see friends and neighbours working in their yards, out for walks or bike rides, taking in outdoor shows, hanging on a local restaurant patio or playing on the ball fields. In summer, you tend to see faces you haven’t seen for months, and everyone is friendly. People say hello as they pass, they stop to chat, they spontaneously come join you on the restaurant patio, or decide that you should come on over for a spur of the moment barbecue.
So, this year, as we head into the fall, that invariably leads to winter, I’m going to try to bring some of that summer friendliness and social energy with me into our season of hibernation. And it will start by continuing with the Hello Pledge. If you’re new to the Hello Pledge, it’s a website that invites you to make a simple conscious commitment to saying hello to people you pass throughout your day.
The Hello Pledge addresses the need to actively bridge the growing disconnect in our communities. For all the reasons I mentioned, and then some, this is less of an issue in the summer but it still exists. I did a daily walk every morning through this summer and made a point of saying hello to everyone I passed along the way. Given our weather, I won’t be doing that walk everyday through the winter, but that doesn’t mean that I should give up on saying hello to passersby that I meet throughout my day.
In our seasonal world, there’s still opportunity to say hello or engage someone new in a conversation no matter what the season — at work, at your local shops, during your commute, when you’re walking down a quiet street. Imagine the power of a simple, enthusiastic hello said to someone you pass by on a gray, rainy day. They’ll be shocked, and hopefully, delighted. Fall and winter can be a tough time for the less connected folks in our communities. Keeping your Hello Pledge commitment active during this time of year may do more good for others than you’ll ever know.
So as we move from “social summer” into “nesting autumn”, I invite everyone, and I mean everyone, to sign on and commit to saying hello to folks in their communities or wherever they may find themselves in our interconnected world. No matter what the weather, no matter what the season, it’s always a good time to say hello.
~ Maureen Douglas
Sign up for the weekly “Truth Tuesdays” blog or for a daily dose of truth, click here:
