We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun ...The end of the summer season has left me feeling a bit down, a bit blue. In my neck of the woods, summer typically tends to linger a bit, somehow defying the rigid callings of the calendar page, lazily and nonchalantly drifting from August well into September. It is such a regular occurrence, that one usually doesn't even notice the wonderful gift. In fact, it becomes the expected. However, this year, summer ended rather abruptly. On August 31 it was 95 degrees and sunny, you could make out the twang of a Jimmy Buffet tune drifting along on the waves of heat. It was the epitome of a summer day. Lemonade and ice cream and fresh strawberries. Sandals and suntan lotion and bathing suits. How we looked forward to playing and relaxing in the pool. We knew it would end eventually as the seasons always turn over. However, this year it left us way too soon, before we even had time to prepare ourselves. On September 1 the skies were overcast, the temperatures struggled to get into the mid-70s. The daylight that used to creep away at 9:00 p.m. in blissful surrender was now stolen away from us by 7:00 p.m.. The empty streets taken over by rumbling yellow buses. Now my mind looks forward and senses the inevitable winter battles that lie ahead. The all too brief periods of daylight, the bitter cold, and the snow. In the summer time, my efforts are to open the house up to the outdoors, to bring the wonderful sights and smells inside to me. In the winter, the struggle is to seal the world outside. So, I am feeling melancholy, the kind of feeling of down that something has been lost, and there is nothing that you can do about it. You just wish you had a bit more time.
