When teaching for the Dallas public schools, most summers I enjoyed two and a half months off for occasional travel, hanging out with friends at the pool, and later taking a graduate course.
But as the end of summer vacation neared, I looked forward to being back with my students…many who are now Facebook friends after 40 years!
Living high above the ground, we are blessed to see how the sun changes positions each day ever-so-slightly. A seventy-story skyscraper stands directly across from our windows, and the sun starts in one position at the beginning of June and by mid-August it has moved considerably. Bank of America Tower is our marker for the sun’s changing position. The sky feels different and the colors of the buildings, the Trinity River floodplain, and everything around the river has a different, more golden color. By September, the color of the sky has changed to a more brilliant blue.
While temperatures in Dallas stay extremely hot in August and even into September, still, a different sensation that summer is coming to an end is felt.
When Ginny sent the original Healing Journey manuscript and I read Chapters 7 and 8, I was sad to see her time in the Door County woods come to an end; but I was inspired by how she wrote about her “ending” experience.
She didn’t have all the answers, but the inner work gave her healing, hope, and spirit to move forward with her life. “The last week of my journey was full in so many ways. Clearly, I didn’t know what was ahead of me, but I accepted that I would get the direction I needed if I continued to listen to that Inner Voice.” And in the final Chapter 8, Ginny tells us “Endings can often reveal the sweetest blessings.”
What sweet blessing are you grateful for?
As summer and this WFTW summer blog series come to an end, it is now time for us to pack away our summer suitcase and begin anticipating what we each want to do with the next season of our lives…whether it is the season of Fall 2021 or the next season of our chronological lives.
What memories did you make this summer that you want to keep?
What made you smile, laugh out loud, brought you joy?
What do you want more of? Less of?
What is your next adventure?
How can you continue to make time for the Inner Journey in the next season?
And most importantly, what sweet blessings are you grateful for from this summer?
What will be your ritual for moving forward?
“It was almost time to leave. I had only two days left. I was ready for the final steps of the ritual….I began to hug trees on my walk. I thanked the trees in my favorite places of quiet reflection…. nothing looked different, yet everything was changed…I was en route with the gifts I had been given to
navigate the rest of my life…”