“September was a thirty-days long goodbye to summer, to the season that left everybody both happy and weary of the warm, humid weather and the exhausting but thrilling adventures.”
— Lea Malot
Sometimes in the crazy bustle of our lives, we can easily lose sight of the good things happening in the present moment.
Watching the ewes gather so peacefully at dusk, moving in slow motion along the abundance of green grass, I am reminded why we should take notice of such things. Recognizing peace brings a sense of calm amidst the flurry of our overscheduled lives.
Our school district is going to start after Labor Day this year, opening in a brand new campus complex for preschool through seniors. Having a bit of extra time to soak up glorious summer has been good for everyone.
“Summer has always been good to me, even the bittersweet end, with the slanted yellow light,” wrote Paul Monette.
On one recent day, I watched my oldest grandson play in his first flag football game, his laser focus so surprising for a 6-year-old. He later jumped in the pool to cool off, coming to the surface breathlessly after snagging the treasure thrown into the deep end. “I got it! I got it all!” he proclaimed.
While I dried off in the warm sun, I couldn’t help but notice a shifting coolness in the air as I wrapped my two little swimmers in large towels after their swim.
Henry David Thoreau said it best in this snippet: “It is the glistening autumnal side of summer. I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer’s heat is undiminished, and I realize what a friend I am losing.”
A touch of sadness always comes with the opening of school doors for me, and I can’t put into words quite why that is.
William Faulkner might have explained it for all of us in this quote: “Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar.”
