{"id":25445,"date":"2023-09-03T10:27:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T14:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=25445"},"modified":"2023-09-03T10:32:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T14:32:05","slug":"the-top-of-the-swing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/03\/the-top-of-the-swing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top of the Swing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tomorrow is the unofficial end of summer.\u00a0 My family will gather for one last barbecue and the kids will swim in the pool one last time.\u00a0 Hot dogs and burgers will be cooked on the grill and everyone will talk about what\u2019s coming up in the fall.\u00a0 We\u2019ll throw around a baseball and swat mosquitoes.\u00a0 Good stuff.<\/p>\n

But the forecast is recording an oddity.\u00a0 At least it\u2019s odd for this year.\u00a0 We have a seven-day forecast where the chance of rain is zero.\u00a0 So now that it\u2019s September and the kids have to retreat to the schoolroom it\u2019s going to be real summer weather with highs in the nineties, something we rarely saw at all in July and August.\u00a0 Ah, the weather gods!<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s very ungracious for the kids but a late blast of heat will be welcomed by me.\u00a0 It won\u2019t revive my vegetable garden or provide new life to the flowering plants but it will provide a backdrop to enjoy the transition to autumn.\u00a0 And it will give me a chance to do some of the repairs and the preparation for winter.\u00a0 I can collect up all the yard and lawn equipment and store it away more carefully than I usually do and fix that gate that\u2019s been hanging crooked for a couple of years.\u00a0 And this year I\u2019ll bed down some of the more sensitive shrubs so they don\u2019t get frost-burned if the snow cover fails again.<\/p>\n

So, the late heat wills serve a purpose.\u00a0 But more than that it will give me a chance to reflect on 2023.\u00a0 Most people do their thinking in the winter.\u00a0 The long evenings and the retreat from the outside are conducive to reflection.\u00a0 But I like late summer.\u00a0 I like to walk around after the kids are back in school and think about how the world is shifting.\u00a0 I like to feel the shift in the cycle.\u00a0 The days are already shorter but the heat of summer is still there and the growth is about to stall.\u00a0 It\u2019s like we\u2019re at the top of some kind of pendulum swing.\u00a0 The forward momentum has died and for just a second, we\u2019re suspended in free fall, just hanging there.\u00a0 In the next moment gravity will pull us down, but just for that moment we can imagine the whole of creation at perfect equilibrium and with no future or past to consider.\u00a0 The Garden of Eden before the Fall.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the payoff of the year for me.\u00a0 If I can have those few golden days at the end, I\u2019m reconciled to the reality of a New England winter.\u00a0 After all we\u2019ll have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to break up the dreariness and I\u2019ll be busy with work and snow removal and chores and I should be busy with writing so the time will pass.\u00a0 And Camera Girl will have her new puppy to keep her busy.\u00a0 So, the world will take care of itself.<\/p>\n

But for just a short time every year I try to shake loose from the day-to-day thoughts and just try to feel the Earth turning under my feet, try to hear the cicadas running out of sap and watch the mechanical dragonflies winding down to a stop.\u00a0 At play in the fields of the Lord for at least one more year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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