Summer Days

The summer doesn’t properly start for me until I feel the monumental crash that follows the end of the school year. It usually comes the very day after I stop working, and involves a full weekend of long afternoon naps that seem to let all the tension and stress escape from my body and prepare me to face whatever plans or goals I’ve chosen for the holidays. This time around, we left for the American south just hours after I waved goodbye to my colleagues and closed the door to my classroom for two months, a new tradition I started by escaping to New York City last year the very same way.

Yesterday and today, after a week spent enjoying concerts by Imagine Dragons and U2 and doing a lot of household chores and running errands, the beginning of letting go happened. The weather had climbed into the high 20s to give two perfect afternoons in a row to indulge in the decadence of napping and emerge with mental clarity.

I had a need yesterday to communicate with a few specific people first, just to relay my thanks to them for their support over the last few months. It was important for me that they know how much I appreciated their simple act of kindness in just listening to me, and then believing and acknowledging what I was going through emotionally. Because of their actions, I've made peace with the past and realized it can't hurt me anymore because it's come and gone. This is a powerful idea that takes time to settle in, but once it does, it frees your heart and your mind.

So, what are the summer plans for the next five weeks before we head off on another holiday? They are beautifully simple and will hopefully be successful. One the health front, I’ve designed a six day a week fitness regime that will see me taking two different types of water classes and a pair of gym ones. Saturday’s aquafit hour will be the earliest one, which will then lead to taking the rest of the weekend off. I’m already in a good groove with the gym I belong to, but just want to kick things into a higher gear while I don’t have work commitments to cut into my time and energy levels. My massage therapist yesterday complimented me on my “changing shape”, so I am optimistic that I can push myself to greater fitness, strength, and flexibility.

I am also looking to reducing the amount of possessions in the house by doing a bit of a systematic purge: clothing will be donated to charity, and I’m looking ahead to retirement in a few years by choosing to recycle or pass along some educational material I’ve not used in many years. With that goal in mind, there will be time devoted to going into many closets and storage spaces to get rid of items that no longer serve a purpose in my life. If I get ambitious, I may do the same in my cyber house.

I’ve also taken to trying my hand at growing vegetables this year for the first time. So far, I think I over-planted in the elevated containers and will see my beans destroy everything around them. Strawberries and a variety of herbs have done really well with the beautiful sunshine and warmth they’ve been given, and the front garden is a bouquet of wonderful colours. The only annoyance is that the plentiful rain has almost encouraged the weeds, and a counter-attack is imminent.

Socially, I am looking to reconnect with local friends, many of them busy teachers like me, to have catch-up lunches, dinners, or drinks. The phone calls and pencilling in of dates have already begun.

Finally, having developed a timeline of major events for the problematic middle chapters of my work in progress and placed them on a calendar of specific dates, I’m feeling more and more confident that I can get this book written and largely edited before we leave for Scotland in mid August. With that in mind, it’s time to disappear down a creative rabbit hole and try not to spend so much time online perusing social media. That will be the real challenge. Wish me luck!