Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

As September and Labor Day roll around, I always remember the phrase “ . . . never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Ernest Hemingway took part of that phrase for the title of his famous novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls; but the original phrase came from John Donne, who lived in England from 1572 to 1631. It’s the schoolbells that bring the phrase to mind.

September, not January, is the real beginning of the New Year. September: when children go back to school, to a new grade and – from time to time – a new physical location. It’s all part of growing up.

September is when families return to normal schedules, rather than summer nonchalance. September is when the world becomes serious again. September is when those who have never had children or no longer have children in their midst must stop their lives for schoolbusses.

I haven’t had children in my home for over a decade, but I still feel the surge of promise, the excitement of returning again to the familiar, the ability to begin anew. So when you see that schoolbus, never send to know for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for all of us.