quick shifts

I really appreciate this blog because it helps me grasp time.  Time and her dramatic sweeps and gestures.  The way she takes us so boldly from one place to the next, one day energized, the next an exhausted stupor.  Time and how she holds our babies high, their legs lengthen, their vocabularies expand.  The internal seasons end abruptly around here.  The external a shadow, a reminder, the sun still on my face, even on the coolest mornings.

Time swept me from a tiny peninsula in British Columbia to a Los Angeles highway.  Swept me from my sister's sweet tree house to the sea, to aunties and cousins, to mothers and fathers.  

Swept me back to our little valley, the school we head to each day, the plans and meetings and goals.  The early mornings and early bedtimes, my body and brain so done before the sun has even set. 

Sometimes it seems a bit insane, the schedule of a teacher.  To go all out to full-stop.  The first few days always feel like a hazy dream.  A dream you've had a million times but never fully remember.  It's neither bad nor good, just totally real. 

So we're in it now.  We're in the glow of September and the gold of the hills.  We're in the apples as they ripen on the trees, the bears as they meander, the children as they snuggle us on a Saturday morning in bed, everyone so very glad for slowness of movement, for a day that can just unfold.