The Month Of Not Writing

I never set out to go an entire month without putting pen to paper or fingers to keys.  Like life, it just happened, and before I knew it, a month went by.  Actually more than a month.  Some say it is like riding a bike, just get back at it.

Well, let's see.

There was also a reason I stepped back.  There was so much that happened that I would've written about, commented on, mused through, but some where just too much.

School ended, that was a relief in some ways, all the driving back and forth and back and forth and back and forth in one day was making me a bit cranky.  There were just too many bad drivers for the trek through town to pick up all the kids at different times.  Then there was the whole surviving sophomore finals, thank God that is over!

Just when I thought I could breathe, my summer program was kicking in full gear.  I had a few days before my assistant started and about one week to breathe after that before the kids started.  And then there are the teenagers who work for us as counselors, let's just say, that after a full week, I need something stronger than a latte!

I could muse on and on about the work ethic and entitlement of this millennial generation.  I won't.  I will just say, life is going to teach them some hard lessons and no amount of calling in their mothers is going to solve it.  The economy will eventually teach them that they have to work and not every job is going to be peaches and cream every day, but hey, they are just starting out and the six figure jobs are for when they get the onionskin...and then if they are lucky.

The news was too depressing and the heat too oppressive to turn on the TV, I just avoided that like the tourists avoiding the Gulf Coast.

That is another thing that had me thinking and another reason I detest some corporate icons.  I've avoided getting gas at a BP station every since they destroyed my family's U.S. ancestral coast.  And the gall of their CEO made me want to throw up.  It just still angers me all the lives and way of living that was destroyed over greed and arrogance.

I didn't read many newspapers, again, too hot and oppressive and depressing, especially after the University City well regarded community leader and officer was killed by a couple teenagers of a dice game.  They robbed him because they lost a few dollars.  I hung my head in disgust and pain for the future generations.

Swimming was out for me so that wasn't a way to shed the bombarding events of the world.  I retreated to the pleasures of an iced vanilla latte and the quiet solitude of my room.  All until my daughters begged and pleaded for me to take them swimming at our complex pool.  I gave it, with one condition, their brother had to get in with them!  Mama wasn't ready to do the public pool thing, just too many steps involved.

In the course of the early days of summer, my husband went to D.C.  Then he did a quick jaunt to Harlem to  do summer clothes shopping for the kids.  He shopped for me, he still thinks I am tall and skinny.  I gave the jeans to one of my counselors.  Guess I will shop in Atlanta.

So, in my month or so away from the keys, life happened.  And time happened.  And joy happened.  And sadness, disappointment, disgust, and finally, peace and quiet.  Such is the ebb and flow of the days we have in the space of the dash.

One month or so and some days, I stepped away from the keys and into the world.  Gives me more to write about.