Monday, August 19, 2013

Summer Realization

As summer vacation beckons, the early morning sun helps inspire me to get moving for the last weeks of school in May and June.  Even when I am feeling exhausted, there is something about early morning light that lightens the load.  Then summer arrives and with it are dozens of unscheduled mornings.  In the summer, I often awaken early for a girl who doesn't have to go to work, usually around 7:15.  I love the quiet of the early morning, especially one that doesn't feature a requirement that I get moving to face the day.

On my last morning in California, I was up even earlier than usual for our flight home.  The horizon was dark at that hour and it wasn't until we settled in at the airport after 6 am that the sun began to rise.  As I watched the light fill the sky around the mountains, I realized that early back-to-school mornings are just around the corner.  I've grown accustomed to summer mornings featuring lovely light bathing my world.  But a quick check of the sunrise and sunset chart for September reveals a truth I know far too well: the daylight is shrinking and my back-to-school mornings will start in hazy darkness.

Though classes don't begin until September 9, as of last week I was making forays into work.  This week will feature the same; I was out of bed and drinking coffee outside by 6 am this morning.   I watered my flowers and the garden and stopped to watch the pink sun rise, a sight I never tire of admiring.  I am at work to get plans in place for my new Middle School responsibilities.  Next week, the rest of the faculty will be there to make it official: school is about to begin.  

Making plans helps to ease my anxious mind.  But there is a corner of me who wishes for my summer to last forever.  The thought of dark mornings ahead feels foreboding.  I suspect that I just need to get started in order to relieve my mind; to get into the swing of things to find both familiar comforts and new tasks that I enjoy.  And there is the consolation of sunrises to admire and enjoy.   Even so, it's a hard summer to let go.

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