How has your summer been?
It's the question many children will be asked to give some expression to through spoken or written story as they return to school a little over a week from now.
Maybe it is a good exercise for all of us. Maybe there have been celebrations of joyful life passages or trying times of grief or loss.
Perhaps old memories have been stirred up or new ones created as we have visited or welcomed family, friends and acquaintances into our lives recently. Have you sat with a close friend over coffee or an ice cream cone and talked about something of significance from the past weeks or months or written it into a journal like my daughter can't wait to do at the end of her day.
We are reminded in the Old Testament Wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, ... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance."
As we pause long enough to think about the flow of daily life we are reminded of the good and the difficult, the joyful and the tragic. I pray that you have found the strength when needed, the freedom when it was called for or solidarity with someone when appropriate.
