Pivot Toward Fall Writing

Summer races toward its end. I’m cognizant there are not that many summers left, a baker’s dozen if I’m lucky. I plan to live each one as best I can without staking a claim to permanence. I’ve come to believe life is lived best in motion. We crave permanence which is anathema to living.

After a break this Labor Day weekend, I turn to my autobiography again. There is a lot to do. Last winter I wrote through to the end of graduate school and sent the draft to a couple of people for feedback. Unlike the traditional chronology of the first part, the next is complex. I have in mind writing it in threads that can be separated from the cloth, multiple concurrent chronologies. I return to the hope this narrative will be relevant to our child.

It has been a weird summer with my spouse gone for the last seven weeks. I don’t mind time alone, yet after a few weeks, I’m ready for us to be together again. We’re not sure how much longer this will continue.

August is the beginning of garden harvest, so she’s missed most of the fresh vegetables. When I make a day trip to visit and help, I take some of what is ready for their table. It’s not the same as being here.

Drought is oppressive. The 2012 drought seemed worse than this year. Both have been bad. We’ll see what the state climatologist has to say once the weather breaks. The last few days have been cooler, yet no rain. No rain forecast for the next week or more. We need rain.

I looked in my cookbooks for a recipe to use hot peppers, tomatillos, garlic and cilantro and found one for tomatillo salsa. It used up half the tomatillos on the counter. That will have to do for this afternoon.

Stroke by stroke I take up writing again. Whatever this summer was, I’m ready to pivot to what’s next. In October I’ll plant the garlic for next July’s crop and it will feel like the garden is done. For today, I’m waiting for Red Delicious apples to ripen, making a couple more pints of tomato sauce, and getting back to writing.

Here we go!