Summer Endings

Eight posts ago, I blogged about summer beginnings—my unfinished paintings. The scorching days were then just starting to assault us without mercy, and today, while the heat is still as oppressive as it was in those early summer days, the whining has lessened.

The universal truth has been proven once again: everything is just a matter of getting used to. 

This morning marks one of my summer endings (finishing a painting is not one of them)—the last day of summer classes.

I had never taught in the summer before because I was always busy with book deadlines, but by a grand burst of generous grace, I was given an early deadline for my latest book—so my manuscript was sent to my editor sometime in March.

The last paper from my habitually late student, turned in as usual at the last minute, is ready for grieving. Not one of my suggestions to improve his draft was followed; all comments, ignored. 

When pressed to explain why, he said, "I forgot."

And the teacher's grief took a turn for the worse. But I have learned to make grief of this nature short-lived, or I'd need a nitroglycerin under my tongue.

In four days, too, Ate Vi will be back from her summer vacation. With bated breath, I will quickly turn over the noble task of housekeeping, which she dumped on my lap. Happy days are here again!

On to more unfinished paintings . . .

. . . more reading, and definitely, more writing—there are again too many niggling ideas in my head that need to transmute into concepts that should eventually become words.

I had hoped I'd finish at least one painting before summer's gone, but that was just a hope, not a promise. 

Summer endings are just as blessed as summer beginnings, aren't they?

“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Timothy 4:4-5 (NIV)