After the realization that drove the previous post, remembering what happened just a year ago, I started to think about other things that happened during this week in years past. We’ve used this same week, give or take a calendar shift, for our family vacation for so many years that I can’t remember how long it’s been.
The second week in August serves as a marker in my yearly calendar. Summertime activities and schedules work around “is it before vacation?”, “is it after vacation?”, or “will it interfere with vacation?”. Consequently, this week serves as a marker for me, a line in the sand if you will.
For Instance: Six years ago, on this very day, my son and I along with a group of close friends were in the middle of a 60 mile backpacking trip through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico. It was the trip of a lifetime. I do remember that we had to cut our vacation up here short so that we could drive home, shower, check our packs, and head out the next morning to catch a train to a bus, to a plane, to a van, to another bus, so we could begin our trip. One day I was fishing in the Great Northeast, and 36 hours later I was standing on top of a 12,000 foot mountain.
Seven years ago, we cut our vacation short again because of a family medical emergency back home. We packed in haste and drove directly to the hospital.
Five years ago, my daughter could not join us for the trip north because she was leaving in the middle of the week for a trip to Australia.
Last year, within an hour of our arrival home I learned about Jack and spent the next 2 days making a flurry of phone calls and spending an hour or two on the phone providing a shoulder for somebody who needed it. 2009 will always stay in my mind as the year I attended 3 LODD services for people or agencies I had a connection with. I hope never to do that again.
And so it goes, all markers in the sand. As I get older I rely on these markers to help me remember things and place them in their proper places in the timeline that is my life. Some are important, some just fond memories, some not so pleasant, but pieces of what I am just the same. At some point I know the tide will come up and wash the sand smooth again. It seems like it is working it’s way up now, very slowly, but it is coming up.
Today is our last full day for our visit up here this year and I am wondering what markers I have collected this year. This time tomorrow we will be packing the van to get on the road and back to home and the daily hassles it brings. I know I will hear all about the 2 major calls I missed, on Monday my boss will tell me about all the things I should have had done before I left, and there will be meetings to catch up on.
I’ll let that sit for another day or so. We still have today in front of us and its time to go fishing. All we have to do is pick a good spot.
UU
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