The summer just flew by! So many of us are thinking, if not saying that right now. Friends who teach in Columbia county, Georgia are back at school today for pre-planning. Other teacher friends will return next week. Back to school sales have been happening since July 4.
Perhaps your summer has been and continues to be filled with cookouts, lake trips, and pool time. You have attended weddings and family reunions. Maybe time has flown this summer because someone you love is ill or friends have been in dire straits. Home improvements, jobs, swimming lessons, and summer camps may have filled up your calendar. Whatever the case, maybe you are like me - just now looking up and thinking "What? It can't be July 31."
When a writer takes a three month hiatus, you might think it is to go on retreat or participate in a workshop. My unintended break ended up to be to:
1. Watch my middle son graduate
2. Travel to Italy and Austria
3. Resign my job in Georgia
4. Pack my house
5. Move to Iowa
6. Unpack into a new house
7. Start a new job
8. Begin navigating a new town
In a sense, this has been both a retreat and a workshop. I felt overwhelmed at times by the emotions of packing up fourteen years of life and love. Saying goodbye to friends to move somewhere new is astonishingly difficult even in the digital age.
No one means to let time fly past, but it does. Most of us talk about seizing the day, being mindful, making the most of every minute. And we try. And sometimes we succeed.
You may be like me - experiencing a big change over the course of a season. Your season may not be shifting for a while. Maybe the impending start of school dictates adjustments in your routine.
No matter when life shifts and changes, I am reminded of something I used to say to incoming freshmen: "Remember that this is not a means to an end. You don't do high school to get into college to go to grad school to get a good job to make money so that you can retire and grow old and die."
It really is the journey.
Perhaps your summer has been and continues to be filled with cookouts, lake trips, and pool time. You have attended weddings and family reunions. Maybe time has flown this summer because someone you love is ill or friends have been in dire straits. Home improvements, jobs, swimming lessons, and summer camps may have filled up your calendar. Whatever the case, maybe you are like me - just now looking up and thinking "What? It can't be July 31."
When a writer takes a three month hiatus, you might think it is to go on retreat or participate in a workshop. My unintended break ended up to be to:
1. Watch my middle son graduate
2. Travel to Italy and Austria
3. Resign my job in Georgia
4. Pack my house
5. Move to Iowa
6. Unpack into a new house
7. Start a new job
8. Begin navigating a new town
In a sense, this has been both a retreat and a workshop. I felt overwhelmed at times by the emotions of packing up fourteen years of life and love. Saying goodbye to friends to move somewhere new is astonishingly difficult even in the digital age.
No one means to let time fly past, but it does. Most of us talk about seizing the day, being mindful, making the most of every minute. And we try. And sometimes we succeed.
You may be like me - experiencing a big change over the course of a season. Your season may not be shifting for a while. Maybe the impending start of school dictates adjustments in your routine.
No matter when life shifts and changes, I am reminded of something I used to say to incoming freshmen: "Remember that this is not a means to an end. You don't do high school to get into college to go to grad school to get a good job to make money so that you can retire and grow old and die."
It really is the journey.
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