Lazy, Hazy Days

Hot summer August days have come to Erie and although our grass and bushes are not browned out nor has the city had to put out a schedule for non-essential water use like washing cars, the heat has hit us. For us, that's temperatures in the high 80s--with humidity.

These last weeks of August find many community members getting in their final days of vacation, welcoming visiting family members--especially from out of town, and just generally getting in last-minute summer events before the school year begins. Since for years and years many of our schedules revolved around the September to June school calendar "when school starts" or "after Labor Day" continue to be popular reference points that are hard to put aside even when we now work at the same ministry year round.

It's been a month since I shared a Mary Oliver poem, so here's one perfect for these August summer days.

Song of the Builders

On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God--

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.

Why I Wake Early
Mary Oliver


Our monarchs are beginning to gather to begin their migration south.