P365 - 2015 - Day 231 - #timeslowdown

P365 - 2015 - Day 231 - #timeslowdown

Remember when summer used to feel like it lasted forever?  I remember being a kid and having that feeling of all of the days running into to each other.  I woke up, put on a bathing suit, and fell into bed at the end of fun, endless days spent swimming and playing.  I don't know exactly when that feeling changed but I imagine it was once I had a firmer grasp on the passage of time and could read a calendar.....  Then the days would still drag leading up to my birthday in July and then simply fly by after and leading up to the start of school.  Summer is my favorite time of year.  I love the warmth, the sun... I've explained this before...  But I also always loved the freedom.  As a kid, it was freedom from school and obligations and as an adult freedom from work (as a teacher) and then with my own kids freedom from the routine....  Even with all of the soccer commitments this summer (and there were a lot), there was still the freedom from the routine of the school year.  But this summer for the first time since living my summers through my kids, I realized that they are numbered.  Our carefree summers have somewhat of an expiration date... call me a pessimist or a realist.. either way, I realized this fact this summer and it has been hard to swallow.  The kids are getting busier with sports, friends, and interests of their own.... soon it will be summer jobs... and in the blink of an eye we will be looking at their last summer before they leave for college.  I have always seen summer as a marker of time.  This summer I am seeing that all too clearly.  Gone are the days of sand castles and digging big holes on the beach.  They are growing up... and while that affords me more time to sit, read, and talk to friends on the beach it still makes me sad as I realize that we have turned a page to a new chapter.  When I took this picture for the day, I was thinking of all of the people we knew in different states (including our old school district in PA) who had started school already.  I had posted this picture on instagram and said "Still Summer here #summerslowdown" and at first that was all I meant... thankful that we still had weeks of summer to look forward too and silently wishing for it to slow down.  But as I thought about this photo and that post I realized that I also meant #timeslowdown.  Please.