Shake Your Ass into September: A Yearly Ritual to Make You Feel Alive

Boys and Girls, Leave Summer Without a Backward Glance and Dance Your Way into Autumn

Martha Manning, Ph.D.
CRY Magazine
Published in
2 min readAug 25, 2022

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Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash

I believe in ritual. Shared, communal activities we do again and again join us to each other to mark times of joy, loss, or sorrow. I believe in the crazy secret stuff you do alone. It anchors you in your life. It brings you back to the center, especially when you’ve been adrift.

Many people mourn the passing of summer. They drag their feet into Autumn with its back-to-work mentality and growing darkness of the days. They miss the sunning and splashing, lazy days, the color and growth.

Years ago, in 1978, one of my favorite groups dropped this song that just blew me away— “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire.

It was a jolt. It sang to me, “Screw this summer mourning…move yourself.” It moved in with some part of me, reappearing each year until I made it mine. It has a timelessness that will help me forget I just turned 70. It is a classic, which someday I hope to be.

So, since then, every morning on September 1, the moment I wake up, I put it on. Before my eyes are open or a stitch of clothes is on my naked self, and without embarrassment, I get to it.

I dance.

I don’t just dance. I contort. I swing and swirl. I jump like a child and my arms reach the sky. The first time I heard it, I scooped up my screaming infant who had the good sense to shut up and go with the flow.

I sing along, swallowing the pure joy of the song. I move with abandon for exactly 3 minutes and 36 seconds. I don’t give a good goddamn what it looks like, even to myself.

No matter what shit is happening in my life, I have reserved this space to be happy and crazy (the good kind). To welcome the autumn with its crispness against my skin and the leaves that kick ass in kaleidoscopic color before they succumb. Every single September. Autumn. Bring it on.

So, go ahead. Shake it. I love the idea of people waking up with me on September 1 and jumping into it together. Shaking ourselves up and landing in the next adventure, in the next time and space. At the very least, you’ll have a juicy secret you can roll around in all day, burdened with your book bags and briefcases. That’s always fun.

Do You Remember?

Dancin’ in September?

Never Knew a Cloudy Day…

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Martha Manning, Ph.D.
CRY Magazine

Dr. Martha Manning is a writer and clinical psychologist, author of Undercurrents and Chasing Grace. Depression sufferer. Mother. Growing older under protest.