Summer days drifted away...

Yes, school is starting up in a few weeks and I am clinging onto the last days of summer (barbecues, afternoon naps, iced tea with friends) with both hands.  I revisited my summer to-do list and I think I did okay.  I read a lot, saw a ton of movies, I soothed babies and chatted with friends I haven't seen in a long time.  No regrets.  Summer days, like weekends, are there to recharge my soul. 

Okay, so I didn't learn French, I didn't watch the Story of English, and I spent an obscene amount of time sitting on a porch playing Drop 7 on my iPod while listening to The Boxer Rebellion, Regina Spektor and Sigur Ros.  I got a new high score.  Bonus.

But I DISCOVERED a lot this summer.  Discoveries are awesome, especially when you aren't looking for them.  I've said before in my blog that I often succumb to the "go, do, become" pressure of life.  If you haven't DONE this or GONE here or BECOME this, then what contribution have you made?  I don't know where this comes from, but that is a crappy voice to have on a vacation.  My summer motto was "sit, think, be; let the summer come to you".  And it did.

And the recharging came from this.  I like my summer to-do list.  It was a good guideline and made sense to have some goals, but I'm okay if I didn't learn French.  Tres bien!  Croissant! Bonjour! There.  It was more important to be present with others and watch the world go by. 

 

My friend and bandmate Jenn had this great epiphany about sunsets.  She's way smarter than I am (she has, like, five degrees) and she had this huge, metaphorical, connective dialogue with me about what she had learned from the metaphor of sunsets.  It got me thinking, sunsets have always been a little sad for me.  The day is done and there is a farewell that seems a little heart-tugging.  Out at the beach, I had to pause the scrabble or card game I was playing and go take a photo of the sunset.  In truth, sunsets are common as the rain, but different every night.  I saw the sunset as a transformational time when the page turns and the next chapter reveals itself.  No matter who you are, what you do, or how you live, you transform.  You can't help yourself.  I have seen the rate of change speed the hell up in my life lately.  The transformations that used to seem slower have increased their rate of change and my head spins a little bit in the process. And just like a sunset, it happens daily but is different every time.  

It was a very good summer.  I am happy, rested and ready for the challenges of the next school year.  The changes I've gone through are in a sense providential I think, as though something is coming and this version of myself needed to be ready for it.  I hope your summer was equally as wonderful.