The barely perceptible sound of a cicada was the first sign, followed a few nights later by a symphony of the insects at a friend’s house at the top of the mountain bordering our valley on an evening that got cool enough for us to grab jackets as we chatted and tried to point out distant landmarks from our vantage point high above the farms, towns and turnpikes that criss-cross the county. Then came the plethora of tomatoes and sweet corn at the farmers market and the advertisements for our minor league baseball team’s final homestands of the season.
Summer is fading slowly here in PA. The warm, humid days are holding on with their usual tenacity, but the evenings are cooling. The sunsets are coming earlier. The marching bands are practicing in the school parking lots. High school football previews are filling the sports segment of the local news.
These are my favorite times. The in-between times. The already-not yet of everyday existence that makes you wonder where the time has gone and where it is going. They’re the days that inspire you to embark on something new or to make the hard decision to stop something old.
Savor these in-between days. Let them refresh you for the seasons ahead.
A thing to read …
I love lists. I love making them. I love checking things off from them. I love reading them. When a local bookstore included a link to The Guardian’s 100 best books of the 21st century, I had to click through. It seems a little premature to declare the best 100 books of the 21st century without the qualifier of “so far” since there’s a good 77 years left in the century. Who knows what the today’s children will produce in their creative lifetime? Or, what will writers like George Saunders or Colson Whitehead create as they continue their careers?
Anyway, I was surprised that I had not heard of many of the books. I only read four of them and was happy to see one of my favorites (Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life) made the top 20. There’s another half-dozen on my TBR list.
What do you think of the list? Did one of your favorites make the list? What do you think is missing?
P.S. - After writing the above, I discovered that this list was created in September 2019! What came out after the list? Stunning works like:
Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility
Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
So, yeah. Exceedingly premature list.
A thing to listen to …
I was looking for acoustic music to add to my front porch soundtrack and stumbled upon Leslie Jordan’s EP, You Are With Me. It’s absolutely lovely. You can read an interview with Leslie about the project at The Rabbit Room.
A thing to remember …
Blessed are we who ask,
for hearts that are soft,
for eyes that are open,
for hands to hold
the wonder that is here,
now.
Kate Bowler & Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days.