WANING DAYS OF SUMMER/A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY

Tail end of August and it's in the air....summer's end.  Here in the PNW the daylight stays so long by the summer Solstice that it feels like night barely arrives before the sun reappears.  I love it with all my heart and my FB feed is full of photos to prove it:  Sunlight peeking over the eastern mountains at 4 a.m.; Light in the western sky  lingering until 10:30 p.m.  I can't resist recording and posting these every year as if that miracle will never happen again.  But it does...

Except during smoke season.  Yes, again this summer we had several days of smoky skies from wildfires in the western states, blotting out the sun and blanketing us in choking unhealthy air, keeping us locked inside sitting next to our air purifiers, sweltering in a record heat wave as well.

And now, on the cusp of September, the long days of light are growing precipitously shorter evidenced by my need, already, to twice set my lamp auto-timers to come on earlier in the evening and set them to also come on in the early morning hours when I'm up but the sun isn't.  And today it's overcast and cool -- high of 62 after yesterday's sunny and 75.  Brushing against the kitchen radiator tells me it even got cold enough last night to trigger the furnace to put out a teeny bit of heat.

But September here is usually beautiful, so I hold out hope for a few more weeks of outdoor activity (so much weeding and pruning and "putting the garden to bed" to do!)  And we have birthdays!  Son One has a BD mid-September, but he's a grown up and we've long since stopped having a pinata party for him.  In fact, we have plans to be on a trip to Lake Tahoe that week. (If it hasn't burned to the ground and the smoke doesn't linger...keeping a close eye on that tragedy and ready for a last minute cancellation.  Isn't that life these days?  Planning is a throwback to more settled times.  Everything is subject to change.  Practicing non-attachment -- so Buddhist!)

The BIG birthday this month is our older granddaughter's.  She will be 12 and entering middle school.  She has decided it's time to leave little girl things behind.  She made a list of "room make-over" items she's been dreaming about, along with detailed sketches of how she wants her room to be arranged.  She shared all this with me a couple weeks ago, sort of "hoping" she might get some of this for her BD since it's really all she wants.  This is a girl who barely asks for anything!  She is so cost-conscious, refuses most offers to buy her things, never wants to impose or interfere or frustrate, feels that asking for things for herself is selfish...we are working on her self-esteem around this and trying to help her see she is deserving of getting some of what she wants and it's not selfish to ask -- or to accept a gift.  

She had every specific item she's been pining over already on an Amazon or Target shopping list and I asked her to show me.  We spent hours talking about it all and why she wants it, likes it, how it makes her feel to have these modest things.  The biggie is a new bed frame and a closet organizer, getting rid of her hand-me-down mismatched furnishings.  The rest is basically "decor".  

I found myself recalling my own longing around her age to create my own space.  Girls this age find in their rooms a refuge, a place to dream, and learn, and think, and create. She will retreat there in the coming years to process the new stresses and joys of teen life; it would be lovely, I thought, to make this space she longs for happen.

So, I got the rest of the family together to explain the plan I'd hatched to give the room a make-over with everyone pitching in financially to make it happen.  I just spent the past hour placing orders, arranging deliveries, figuring out which items are 'in person' purchases, making sure Hub is around for the "some assembly required" items.  My son and DIL are thrilled with the idea and will get her other gifts.  Son Two and DIL won't have to guess what she might like.  And I get the absolute joy of working with my granddaughter to make this happen.  She is soooo excited and happy and incredibly thankful.  Her attitude of gratefulness and never taking any of this for granted makes it an even more beautiful experience.  When I told her the plan, tears were shed -- by both of us.

So, as summer winds down, I find myself in a familiar place of side-by-side sadness and joy. 

We are back to masking indoors and gathering mostly outdoors with family and friends until we can get the vaccine booster.  Delta Variant is no joke and breakthrough Covid is rising in our county.  Anti maskers and anti vaxxers are growing more militant and violent, taking over school board meetings to protest masks as kids go back to school.  Climate change continues to wreck havoc with fires and hurricanes and floods.  The end of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan has brought chaos and death, as well as the biggest, most successful airlift in history of people exiting that country.  

AND among my family and friends, we are healthy and all in agreement about vaccines and politics.  We know we have to mitigate the effects of climate change and we are making plans on many fronts, including keeping travel plans flexible.  Hub is working tirelessly on his various climate change related groups and committees.  We are doing what we can.  Amidst the world's woes we often come to a place of micro-focusing on what we can do now to create a life that is one of generosity and love for those around us.  A new bedroom for a very sweet and deserving girl is top of the list this month.  I can't wait to see it!

At least, that's the view from here...©