At Summer's End: Gratitude and Snapshots

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?"                                        

Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

It's been a long, leisurely summer and now it's over. And that is okay with me. Summer has given me time to reflect on how blessed I am to be guiding our two sons into adulthood with my husband.  Even when lunch is in a parked minivan in the parking lot of a suburban shopping center.


Yesterday, being the Monday before the week our sons and I head back to school, and before soccer and cyclocross seasons begin, was spent in the minivan. The 12 year old and I spent an hour or so at Office Depot, stocking up on his school supplies and then we visited three different sports stores before finding the soccer goal-keeper gloves he needs. We fueled up at a local Starbucks with iced coffees and sandwiches. This is our view at lunchtime.

Now the house is full of school supplies and the minivan has two red folding chairs in the "far back," waiting to be unfolded at travel soccer games across New Jersey (the 12 year old)  and weekend cyclocross races across the MidAtlantic. (the 15 year old) It will be a busy fall.

As much as I sometimes bemoan the frantic pace of our lives, I welcome the change in rhythm that fall brings.

So, so long summer! Here are some photos from my cell phone and iPad from the lazy happy days of June, July and August. You have no idea how hard it is to get our sons' faces in front of cameras.

East Falmouth, Mass., Walmart. While I stocked up groceries at our vacation's start, Gabriel tests out a bike, riding it all over the store. He meets me in the bread aisle.

Greg on Menauhant Beach in East Falmouth, Mass. while we wait for our rental home to open. 

Lucas at a Trenton (NJ) Thunder game, where his brother's orchestra plays the National Anthem.

In Bedford, NY, at my parents' home. My dad enjoying some pasta I made.

I took a lot of hikes this summer. I had plenty of time to consider aging parents, and boys growing into young men and our married love, which deepens year by year. Here is a shot of Lime Kiln Alley Park in Bordentown, NJ. I am looking forward to more hikes this fall and to watching the leaves change.