Month: August 2012

A picture from this week at camp.  Have I mentioned that I am routinely staggered, brought to my  knees, by the very fact that my daughter and my best friend from camp’s daughter, 12 weeks apart to the day, are walking on the beach together in such a special place?  When I think of it I fall into the black hole of memory where individual moments flash and glint: when I first met Jess, the moment she pulled up to be my co-counselor in cabin 18 after we hadn’t spoken in several years, her gorgeous, sun-drenched wedding, the morning I called her in a whisper to say I’d seen a second, shadowy line on a pregnancy test.  There are a million other memories that drift over me like snowflakes, together forming a bank that is one of the essential bulwarks of my life.

And now it is their turn.  These girls, our girls, this next generation.  The world turns forward.

May what they share on this magical stretch of coastline thread through their souls in the eternal, sustaining way it has through Jess’s and mine.

(Happy 10th birthday, Julia!  I remember 10 years ago like it was yesterday.  So much love to you.)

It has been an absolutely lovely week of just Whit and me at home.  He wrote her a card one night, and after he handed it to me he said, “Wait!  I want to write one more thing.”  He grabbed it and, concentrating, added the smiling face and “I love you.”  All on his own.  And I cracked a little inside, but in a way that just let in more light.

Today it is August.  Today marks the beginning of the end of summer and of the slowest month of the year.

Just like last year I am participating in Susanna Conway’s August Break and will be posting a picture every (week)day in August.

I hope this month holds some long, empty days for you, lots of memories, some popsicles, salt water, and lots of wonder. I look forward to sharing what it holds for me, through the lens of my camera instead of that of my words.