This is what I learned this summer:

That breaks really make a difference. Relax the rubber band or it will lose the stretch that makes it so good at what it does.

That exercise feels sooo good when it is regular. If it is something I like doing I will anticipate it rather than dread it.

That the stupid computer and all its illusory attractions rob me of my humanity. I need time to contemplate, to chew on slow reading, to talk ideas with my family over several dinner tables.  Email and internet tasks fragment my soul.

That I need to write in my journal. I thought I should lay it aside as something I have outgrown. Nuh uh. It is a wick to draw out the toxins, a pool in which to cool down, a garden bed for ephemeral flowers. I have no pride–I need that book of empty pages to scribble in.

That each season has its joys.

This has been a fabulous summer for me. I put at least 600 miles on my bike and, consequently, wear some stylish clothes for a change. I studied and read some books, and then experienced the mimetic sequence, and so I am a different person than  I was. Really. My approach to tutoring and parenting has changed.

Maybe I dread the rapidly coming darkness of those long Vermont winter nights. Soon it will be dark when I get up.  But summer’s relentless sunniness makes me pant for the dappled days of autumn.

If the mimetic sequence is how we naturally learn, then it exists in the mind of the Creator, and He teaches me through what I encounter. I chose my guiding verse for the year:

Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name. Ps. 86:11

Summer was a sunny spot in the road.  Thank You, Lord, for it.