For those of us who take a break during the summer and enjoy the slower pace of work and play, September marks a time to increase our tempo again. Whether it’s back to school, back to work, or just back into the swing of things, our schedules fill up again. I hope that doesn’t mean that we’ll get back into the same old rut.

As you read this issue, I hope you’ll notice how many great events are occurring in the area and take advantage of them to experience something new.  You can choose from the Highlands Festival at Waterloo (p. 2), the Tour de Farm (p. 20), Global Mala for Peace (p. 47), Gluten & Allergen Free expo (p. 26), Move in Grace Open House, The American Health and Wellness Fair, The Awaken Wellness Fair (p. 8), The One Spirit Festival (p. 11), Breast Cancer Wellness Open House (p. 11), and many others that you’ll find throughout our pages and calendar of events.

This is also the time of year that we start our community recognition program. To honor the business owners who lead our local community in natural living, Natural Awakeningsis holding its second annual Natural Choice Award. We ask readers to nominate their favorite local businesses and service providers in almost 40 categories. Many of these companies and individuals go unrecognized in our community by traditional publications. They have often taken a more difficult route by offering natural and green alternatives, and should be awarded for excelling in their field.

You can vote online at NaturalAwakeningsNJ.com. Balloting will continue until Nov. 30. Category winners will be will be notified during December and announced in our January 2014 issue.  We have a special reward for the one business with the most overall votes: It will be featured in a special Community Spotlight article so that all our readers can get to know it.