Reflecting on the season just passed

Summer is ending. As I drop my youngest off for her first day of her last year of school, I feel surprisingly un-precious about these last days of summer. Maybe it’s the midlife thing, midlife feels like the fall season, and I like it. As I am increasingly less responsible for the details and logistics for my family, and more focused on the guidance and nurturing of young adults, I find I have a little bit more space for reflection on my own life.

This week I reflected on the challenges of the summer: the shift in relationships, creating the structure that I know will support the life that I’m building, pushing through the work that I really don’t want to do, but I’m proud of myself for, the mess of my garden.

I reflected on the pleasures of the summer: the books I’ve read that have helped me set boundaries and access my creativity, the abundance of time with friendships I’ve chosen because I feel safe to be vulnerable with, the precious time with my kids as adults, the joy of my garden.

Honestly, just this act of reflecting on the highs and the lows, the way it reminds me of the life that I’m designing, and slowing down enough to share it with you is a pleasure.