Endings

This feels like a goodbye post, which it really isn't. There is just something so line-in-the-sand about the last week of school, and by "week" I mean three almost-half days and one hour-and-a-half day.

I go to a Starbucks by Wil's school about once or twice a month after I drop him off, get myself a tall cappuccino for "here" and sit in a cozy chair to collect myself. If I'm getting ready for an author event, then I read through my notes, practice what I'm going to read, and generally psyche myself up while simultaneously calming myself down. You get it. Today I did the same thing.

I sat there and sipped, plugging into my own Pandora station on my phone, and reflecting on the year it's been - a good one, all the great people that are leaving, a lot, and all the wonderful ones that are staying - even more. I can't believe in two short years we will walk out those doors for the last time and it will be the... last time.

Another thing my cousin and I talked about at our breakfast last week, was endings - deaths, really. There is the death we think about in terms of death, but we die many deaths in a lifetime, we mourn, we lose, we are born, we live, over and over again. June always feels like a death to me, followed by a rebirth in September.

So as I finished that last swallow of coffee-flavored foam, I said goodbye to another year. A good year. A very good year.

Thursday at 10:00 AM it will be time to say hello to summer, and all that that brings, its challenges, long days, and too short of nights, its very summery-ness. And inevitably, it's hidden gifts.