The leaves on the dogwoods are always the first to go. Early August, you start to see the brilliant red burst out on the trees, and you know that it’s soon going to be over. Kids start coming home from a long summer at camp, with bites and scratches and rank laundry and a new sense of independence and poise, as well as secrets that we, their parents, will never know.
Back-to-school overtakes all shopping, and while many are still away on vacation, many have trudged back, and are already counting the days – kids usually with trepidation, parents usually with enthusiasm that the less structured time of the year is winding down.
High school sports start two weeks before school, and those who happen to have a college student who happens to also be a Resident Manager have already trucked that child off to school, nine hours from home, for a two-week training session before school starts.
And yet, I am still experiencing some summer magic.
It’s midnight, and my backdoor is wide open, as it is another gorgeous and cool night in a summer that has been rife with them. The fireflies and cicadas are lighting up my backyard and filling it with song. There is still a hint of jasmine and honeysuckle when I take my morning walks in the park before it gets too sunny.
This week there was a second Super Moon, which I missed because it’s been cloudy, but I saw the one in July hover over the beach – huge and red and magnificent and portentous. I always tell my children that when I travel overseas, I am seeing the same moon they are back here, and when I see it here, I like to think of my friends and family who live across oceans and time zones and sometimes intractable distance.
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