Sliding Into Fall

AMEN! :)
Post from Mental Multivitamin
-----------------------------

If you merely count the days from summer's official start in June until its finale in September, August 1 doesn't even mark the summer midpoint. But it does mark the high point, which means the beginning of the end.

The light shifts, softens. The shadows on the leaves and the living room floor make you wonder: When exactly did the wane start?

People in other places may not wonder, but Chicagoans are connoisseurs of summer light. We spot the changes as surely as a foodie detects the difference between fennel and star-anise.

You know what I have to say, right?

The rumors of summer's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Please, no more, "Summer's practically over!" Yes, I love back-to-school supplies as much as the next autodidact, but their reduced prices at Target do not herald the end of summer, only the end of the "summer fun" aisle.

Okay?

Okay.

Let's savor August... even as we "connoisseurs of summer light" note the subtle changes.

Let's celebrate the summer.

Let's take long walks, throw rocks in the lake, drive with all of the windows down, and sing along with the car radio -- even (perhaps, especially) at stoplights.

Let's dream and read and sleep in and eat cherry or grape tomatoes. Whole. POP! SQUISH!

Let's have the kids push us on the swing.

Let's swim.

And learn something.

And talk about something (other than ourselves).

Let's dance to our own eight-tracks without eyeing the room to see what everyone else is doing.

Let's live.

Happy summer.