Summer Light

We are on vacation in Carpinteria. I should say the kids are on vacation and I am on a trip. It's not really a vacation when you still have to clean, cook, and do laundry and I don't even have to do that at home. Still, it's really beautiful here and the view from the laundromat is nice. Yesterday I even had an entire hour to myself to lay prostrate in the sand and listen to the waves. Bliss.

So, as the sun sets slowly over Carpinteria we say a fond farewell to Summer 2011. Summer 2011 has been really difficult. Kid issues and my best friends cancer diagnosis have not been conducive to enjoying these "lazy, hazy, crazy days". (If you are not old enough to get the song reference I do not care.) I have had to do some growing and changing this summer and I didn't like it. I am generally of the mind that I am pretty perfect and it's all of you who need to grow and change so it is not easy. What has been confirmed however is that even in the darkest moments there is beauty, humor and a faint glimmer of hope and light if you look for it. I have watched a marriage grow stronger and a family come together to face a really scary disease with so much courage and love. They were close before, but now they are a formidable team. I have witnessed a teenage girl bravely begin to face her immeasurable teenage angst. And, I have been fortunate enough to sit on the beach looking at the darkness within for that faint glimmer of hope and light only to look up to find myself bathing in the awesome, magic, golden light of sunset reflecting off the faces of my children and realize what is really important......... me. Joking. Kind of. Happy Summer.