Summer's End

Today our public school students go back to school.  The summer has zoomed by.  When I think about this summer, I may see it as a lost summer.  I didn't swim much.  I didn't get away to my sister's sailboat.  All the books I thought I might read still sit on my books to read shelf. 

But we have made a lot of progress on the home repairs that needed to be done.  I knew it would take a lot of time and energy--and mental space, in terms of planning and organizing.  There's a reason why I procrastinated.  It is good to get the work done, and it has taken much of the summer.

Maybe I will remember this as the summer of the watermelon tubs.  At least once a week, I've gone to Doris' Italian Market, where they have huge tubs of watermelon for $4.99.  I thought it was a sale early in the summer, but it's been the price all summer.

Yes, I could buy a whole watermelon for five dollars--but then I'd have to cut it up.  The watermelon in the tubs has been consistently delicious, unlike the cantaloupe that I bought on sale at Publix.

I'm always looking for ways to get more fruits and veggies into my diet, and this has been a sure-fire way.

It's strange how the cycles of the school year don't really apply to me anymore.  My job is year round, and my school is on a quarter system, so there's never a whole season off.  But much like church seasons, which got soaked into my circadian rhythms very early, the school year cycle is the same.  I still feel the urge to buy some new school supplies each year.  I know that it will be months before our weather changes to anything that would require a sweater--but I want to change out my closets nonetheless.

As school buses begin their trundle through the day, let us say a little prayer for everyone who returns to school today.  Let's pray for students and teachers--but also for the non-teacher staff members who do their best to keep everything running smoothly.  Let's pray for the rest of us--may we be careful drivers as we approach buses and schools.  Let's pray for what used to be so common we didn't even think of it:  may we have a school year free of gun violence. 

And while we're at it, let's pray for the larger world, which is in such need of the kind of inspired visions that the best education encourages.