Those lazy, hazy days of summer are winding down and soon the yellow bus will take the children back to school. And that unique, mind-expanding, dreamy time with less structure, just playing in the back yard, taking trips to the beach, mountains and natural wonders like canyons, no homework and more freedom, will be over for another year and children will go back to their work of schooling.
Writers often catch a little summer down time too if they're lucky - watching waves wash endlessly on the shore, kayaking quietly on deep green lakes or watching fire flies flit through the dusk of evening, until they too return to the desk and screen.
But in the last days of this wonderful season...
...the writer, even with summer work hours, and the child, with structured learning pursuits of sports, science, art and music camps, have the luxury to see new things or old ideas anew, imagine different possibilities, and to dream.
I just returned from a short vacation to Cape Cod where I did watch waves lapping and gulls wheeling and let my thoughts wander. I watched children look through telescopes far out to sea to catch an adventure on the deep and saw them examine sea life up close at the Woods Hole Aquarium. What wondrous life there is on land and sea -- I just let the thoughts flow -- and then grabbed a pen and started jotting them down. And then began organizing new ideas and story lines. After all, we writers start back to our school of discipline too.
I want to be ready. Are you?
Friday, August 28, 2009
Back to School
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I would happily sacrifice a toe if I could live by the sea...
ReplyDeleteWhile I hate for summer to end, I do look forward to the structure of the school year. I'll only have one at home --after tomorrow -- gulp -- and he'll catch the bus at 6:45 a.m. After that, I'll walk the dog and be at my desk by 7:30.
ReplyDeleteAnd some writers will be going back to school too -- to teach!
ReplyDeleteHow I wish I had a job where I got the summers off! But I just survived two weeks of new-student orientations and the first week of classes at our college, so all is good.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once asked me what my favorite sound was... I responded that it was the sound of the school bus pulling away from the curb on the first day of school. That was many years ago, but I do still love autumn and all that it represents, even though I had to force myself into "back to school" mode in July when I went back to school!
ReplyDeleteI didn't get much of a summer break. I had to work through it with a one week vacation. But I'm looking forward to the fall and winter season with a couple of long weekends in the mountains with colorful leaves around me and white snow.
ReplyDelete