Summer’s End

Is it possible to be refreshed and wiped out at the same time? That’s what several days with my family at Itasca State Park, a day at a friend’s lake home and two parties has left me feeling. With the rejuvination has come the sudden realization that we are far from being ready for what’s next…or are we? True, we still have several items to cross off on our back-to-school list. But today, orientation for our middle-schooler, the arrival by mail of the coveted teacher assignments and a sports physical combined to create an undeniable awareness. Just as it was time several months back for spring to arrive in all its glory, it’s time again to welcome another season in our lives. This go-around, we ready to move away from late nights and double sleepovers and all-week grilling and into the beginnings of fall. The summer has been good to us, though, and the excitement over a fresh school year with its new classes and teachers and other clean-slate beginnings has taken hold of the kids, nudging them gently into the next season. A week from today, they’ll be fully immersed in the first day of school year 08/09. The accelerating energy of the past couple weeks will implode through the school halls as children reacquaint and reposition themselves for what’s to come. They’ve been ready for a while now, it seems, and yes, I believe I am, too.