With the coming end of the annual lengthy break from the traditional school year upon us, the chatter around the house heralds the impending “end” of summer. As a fan of the long, warm days, I prefer to hang on to the calendar demarcation of its demise – Sept. 22. But a return to the standard daily routine of bus stops and copious homework most assuredly will remind me that, indeed, the halcyon days have succumbed to the inevitable march of time. Perhaps someday, when the kids are grown and gone, we can return to a summer only ending with falling leaves and the smell of campfires. It might be like awaking without an alarm clock rousting one from slumber. The first light of dawn, corresponding with one’s own internal need for rest, would softly awaken to the new day.
Without regard to the flaming horseman that announces it, summer, at least as it is celebrated in the Anker home, is lunging toward its final weeks. As with the close of most important moments, it leads one to pause and reflect on these months that have passed. How will we remember the summer of 2013? Will we remember it at all? Did we travel? Did we travel too much? Did we laugh? Did we cry? Did we live these expansive days to their fullest potential? Did we take pause to enjoy the simple pleasures wrought by the sunshine on our shoulders?
All in all for our family, it has been a good season full of all the things that one expects to accompany the time. Perhaps the greatest test of enjoyment is to ask one’s self whether we are ready for the summer to end. From where I sit, the answer is an emphatic NO – another month or two would be just fine.