Around Here

Around here, a soccer team finished their season strong. This is a picture that was taken a few minutes after they learned they were the division champions. I love that their coaches didn’t tell them that’s what they were playing for until after the game. I love that instead, as the girls take the field, they yell, “Go out with confidence; play with joy.” No matter the outcome, confidence and joy always please.

Around here, a friend told me about chasing the sun, a term I think will become my summer manifesto. Apparently, you have to be willing to go where the road ends if you want to see the sun’s last gasp before settling in on the other side of the world. That’s fine with me.

Around here I dipped my toes in Lake Michigan’s water and wondered if it’d seen Chicago. How’s Chicago doing, Lake Michigan? How’s that skyline and how are the Cubs? How’s Lake Shore Drive, and how’s the Lincoln Park Zoo?

Around here we’re spending evenings at the pool playing pick-up games of, well, I’m not sure what game this is, but we’re in on it. We’ll worry about the mechanics and rules later. We just want to play.

Around here we are at bat. Look at that stance! It’s like she’s waited all her nine and a half years for this moment.

Around here we are running them bases. Yes, that’s a smile on her face. During a rainy soccer game, a mother asked me if Harper ever isn’t smiling. Not when she’s playing or dancing. Harper tells me she has to constantly swallow laughter, but clearly her joy is too big to swallow. It seeps from her.

Around here, we are putting ourselves in front of the baseballs. We are ready for them. “Did you play softball when you were a kid?” Harper asked me. “Well, I was on a team, I don’t know if what I did would be considered playing the game.”

“Could you hit the ball?” she asked.

“No,” I said, remembering a mighty swing I took from a pitch that went feet over my head. The umpire cried, “Ball!” and I said, “No, no. I swung at that,” I said. “You sure?” he asked. “Yup,” I said. He chuckled, thanked me for being honest, and then cried, “Strike!”

“How about throwing and catching?” Harper asked.

“No, I couldn’t really do that either,” I said, and then I told her about the time I got my front tooth knocked out while in the dugout. “It wasn’t really my game,” I said.

Around here we are starting our mornings with writing (once a teacher, always a teacher). I found these and so far they’ve provided for some funny, imaginative stories.

Around here we are enjoying the fact that instead of getting dressed to go to school, we’re putting on bathing suits and running across the backyard to go swimming first thing in the morning. The days are slower. I get to stay at home, and take hot biscuits out of the oven, and offer them with cherry preserves on plates that say, “Discover,” and “seek,” and, “wonder.”

 

I was listening to NPR while I was getting ready on the last day of school, and there was a story about the process of making movie posters, and how it used to be done by hand, but now is all done on the computer. We make more, we get the word out about films faster, but, as is the case with so many things that are mass produced, things just aren’t the same. People are paying ridiculous amounts of money for the handmade movie posters, and the interviewer asked why that was. The person being interviewed said that it is because of nostalgia, and “nostalgia is a strong, life affirming thing.” I think that’s what I love about summer – it’s nostalgic before it’s happened. I don’t argue nostalgia is strong, but, like chasing the sun, I will be happy to think about it’s life affirming effects over these next several weeks.

Happy Summer to you. Thanks for reading.

PS – Cheers to 41 FIVE STAR REVIEWS on Amazon! Thank you, so much! Maybe 50 by July?