8/28 End of Summer

sun setting at the Getty

The end of August is the end of summer and it feels like it even though there are still many more weeks of hot weather and heat waves left where I live before the cooler temperature of fall begins. The end of summer comes with disappointment, impatience, and restlessness. Disappointment at the prospect of losing the long daylight and the period of time that is a period of vacation for many people. Restlessness of wanting to be outside more, to take advantage of the sun as much as possible while the afternoon is reluctant to wane into evening. A side-eyed grumbling at the overbearing heat that dampens the willpower to be outside. There is also a restlessness with the heat, asking how much longer one must endure it before a respite from the suffocating weight of the hot air indoors and out. 

The end of summer is the time I feel as if I need another vacation. It is an exasperating transitional space where I am fatigued from what seems like interminable weeks of heat but plagued with a desire that the warmth of summer won’t end. Waiting for the leaves to fall and make those crunching noises under my feet but also not wanting to come out of a slow summer lull nor welcoming the gloomy darkness of longer nights. 

It is not a time to be making plans. It is a time to try to savor every remaining day of summer by taking it day by day, portioning out the day and living it as if the entire summer has fit into it. 

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