JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

Chip Gibbons noted The Coming Darkness. I love summer. But this year I’m looking forward to the gray time too.

Summer here in the Northwest is short and sweet. If I’m remembering correctly, we’ve enjoyed six weeks of sunny dry days, beginning in mid-July. These are the days for staining the deck and accomplishing projects. These are the days for exploring the woods and waters. These are the days for grilling and gardening.

The hours of light between sunrise and sunset, long and glorious, disappear, packed with ephemeral pleasures of the season. Ice cream cones. Swimming lessons. Playdates at the playground.

After dinner we excuse the children from their usual chores so they can bicycle and roller skate on the sidewalk. Often in the afternoon, we reject our routines of tidying and cleaning so the girls can dance in the sprinkler on the grass. We take day trips to pick berries and ride ponies.

Monday nights we eat early before the All Comers Track Meet where the girls have fun racing other kids in sprints. Wednesday nights we picnic at the Waterfront Park concerts. We can count the dates on our fingers – so we go when we can, knowing each one is an opportunity that won’t exist after August.

Once the kids go to sleep at a later time, along with the sun, I feel tired too, unpacking picnic dishes or cleaning up the mess left after dinner. Laundry asks to be sorted and folded, piles of towels from our aquatic adventures adding to the bulk, building an unstable tower of Pisa or Babel beside the washer. Never mind the need for clean underwear. And my online life asks for late night attention too, neglected emails and blogs giving me guilt so heavy my eyes close in sleep, a sleep of escape and exhaustion, a sleep needed to prepare me for another summer morning of swimming and running and…

If blogging were an Olympic sport, it would be in the Winter Games. Summer competes too much for me with blogging time. Flowers need water. Plants need pruning. Gardens need weeding. The deck needs to get done. And kids need fun…trips to the beach, visits to the aquarium, quiet time with the ice cream truck.

Saturday I hoped to catch up with email and blogposts. But the girls asked me if we could go to a playground. And they also wanted to run in the sprinkler. One day, eventually, I’ll have time for my online life. But I won’t always have the weather to have fun with the girls outdoors. And I won’t always have girls at home to enjoy either. So the decision was easy.

Last night we missed the last track meet due to the rain. Before the kids were in bed, the sky was dark. Black. I was surprised. But I also welcomed the gray.

I like the light. But this year I’m looking forward to the darker days. I’m anticipating a simpler life indoors, a time of rest and refreshment, waiting for the busy Olympics of Summer to begin…