September is the Crack that Let’s the Light In
Every year, around the end of August into the beginning of September, my grandmother — Mommom — would take Olivia and me to Staples. We'd walk the aisles with such serious reverence, picking out all the pens, pencils, Post-its, folders, and binders we needed for the year ahead. Then we'd bring it all back to her house and lay it out on her kitchen table — the table where a whole life happened — and unpack every container, only to pack it all right back up. By the time we were done, we felt ready.
Around that same time of year, Mommom (our mother's mother) and Pop-up (our father's father) would each take us back-to-school shopping. We had a dress code, so it was never simple — try finding business-casual for curvy thirteen-year-olds — but they made it work every year. I remember the look usually landed somewhere around Steve Madden shoes, a button-down from Express, and a skirt from the Gap.
Our parents' divorce didn't destroy our family. It didn't break it. It opened it. It made room for other adults to play bigger roles in the story of our lives.
Sometimes that's what a fresh start does. It might feel like a crack. But it's the crack that lets the light in — and lets all these other people flood into your life.
So this September, we don't want you to think of divorce as a break. We want you to think of it as a crack that lets the light in.
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