In the prologue to Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, the narrator tells of the strangeness of the first week August. Setting the stage with a warning of sorts.
The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.
Here in the last days of August the sun is hot and the weekend is long. While it seems like everyone is commiserating or enjoying the last weekend of summer I’m not ready to let it go just yet. In the PNW summer shows up late but usually sticks around on into September. Assuming the sky isn’t clouded with wildfire smoke (and thankfully it isn’t this year!), the end of August and beginning of September are my favorite weeks of Summer. "[The weeks] that follow [are] a drop to the chill of autumn, but the [beginning of September] is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”
Whether you are commiserating, savoring, or holding on to these days of summer, take a minute to notice the white dawn or the extravagantly colored sunset. Take a breath in these strange days and see what is in store for you.
Historically (is WW old enough to have a history?), WildWood doesn’t meet on Labor Day weekend while everyone is off enjoying the long weekend. Next weekend, September 8, we will gather for the second part of Nature + Spirituality, Eco Grief. The rest of September is going to have a bit of a weird schedule but more to come on that next week.
See you on the 8th!
The nature walk at 3 pm is optional, you don't have to go for the walk to join for the reflection and conversation. We'll meet at the Eastside St. entrance to the Watershed Park trail.
At 4 pm we will gather for a conversation and reflection facilitated by Linnea Gullikson. We'll meet in our usual Chapel space at United Churches, 110 Eleventh Ave SE.
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