The leaves are falling.  The squirrels are climbing all over my trees and eating the acorns and the leaves are falling all over my lawn.

Is the Summer of 2010 really over? 

They say that the older you get, the faster the days and years go by.  I guess what they say is quickly becoming true.

Since it was 92 degrees this past weekend, I was able to sneak in one last bathing suit beach walk.  The sand was windswept. It looked just like a painting, like someone had used an Etch-a-Sketch and designed a geometric carpet in the sand.  It was so smooth and flat.  There were no piles or mounds of sand.

The little sandpipers were back, scurrying along the waters’ edge.  I think they like the empty beaches.  There were no groups of people to get in their way while they searched for sand crabs.  I love to watch the sandpipers.

Is the Summer of 2010 really over?

I don’t want summer to end.  I want to ride my boogie board one more time.  I only had one chance to ride it this summer.  (Actually, I did have more than one chance to ride my boogie board, but I didn’t have the courage to get on it after the first time.  I am such a wimp.  However, if the summer of 2010 was not over, I would definitely try to use my boogie board again.  Yes, I would. And I’m going to take special care to make sure that my boogie board is stored away properly this winter, so I will be ready to boogie next summer.)

Is the Summer of 2010 really over?

I am sad to leave the summer of 2010 behind.  Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh says in her book, A Gift From the Sea, “Rollers on the beach, wind in the pines, the slow flapping of herons across sand dunes, drown out the hectic rhythms of city and suburb, time tables and schedules.  One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches out prone. One becomes, in fact, like the element on which one lies, flattened by the sea, bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by today’s tides of all yesterday’s scribblings.”

I so enjoyed relaxing, de-stressing, riding my bicycle, barbecuing, and reading on my back porch at my ‘condo on the corner at the shore.’ I still have not finished the book I started at the beginning of the summer.  I’ll have to finish it this Fall.


Is the Summer of 2010 really over?

I don’t want summer to be over.  I don’t want to pack up my summer clothes and move my winter attire back into my closet. I want to keep my flip-flops on my feet and flip and flop in the sand.

Wait, wait, wait, maybe I do want summer to be over.  Maybe just a little bit of me wants summer to be over.  Maybe my feet want summer to be over.

Wait, my feet are starting to talk.  What are they saying.  Hold on. Yes.  I hear you dear feet.  What is that you say?

Yes, you are right.  I do want to wear my new red suede shoes with sling backs.

Yes, that’s correct. I do want to wear my new purple suede flats bedecked with jewels.

Yes, uh, huh. I do want to wear my new brown suede kitten-heeled shoes too.

I guess I have to pack away my summer flip-flops and put my feet back undercover in all my pretty suede shoes.

The summer of my 52nd year is really over.   But, I still can row my boat like I did tonight at yoga class. Yes, I can.

I settled into the boat position and held my feet up.  I waved my arms from side to side, like my yoga teacher N said to do.  Back and forth I went until my boat became weak and wobbly. It started to flip over. The waves of my stomach overturned my boat and down I went sails and all.

It takes a lot of core strength to keep my boat afloat. I have nine more months to practice until I have to get back in the high seas again. Maybe if I keep practicing my yoga boat moves this winter, my middle aged middle will be flat as a pancake and ready to boogie or maybe even get in a bikini  by the summer of 2011.

Judi


(Did I say bikini?  I must have been dreaming about my Rosemarie Reed striped bikini that I wore when I was 25 years old.  I loved that striped bikini. Good thing Rosemarie isn’t around anymore. Right?)