Things I am Taking Into August

Bobcat on the septic field at dusk, from a previous
year's August but not out of the question
for this year.

Helpful, positive, constructive input on a beloved project.

A renewed and affirmed sense of myself as a writer, reviser, and editor.

The recognition, perhaps again, that I am ready to simplify many elements of my life. (As in, how many bedspreads do we NEED in this house?)

A newly crowned molar. One down, one to go!

A fading bruise, the souvenir of a couple of days with chainsaw and loppers clearing saplings from under the power line. Bragging about that makes me feel gnarly.

A cleaned out water storage tank in the basement.

The experience of reading books ONLY off my own bookshelves for a month (it was wonderful).

The re-recognition, born of looking at photos from previous Augusts, that the world moves in cycles. Apparently, August is often hazy. Apparently, I need to re-recognize that every year.  

The sincere, if probably ineffectual, effort to refrain from saying, "How can it be August already?" every other day or so.

Here's hoping you are the same.

What I took into July is here. What I took into June is here. Apparently I traveled light in May. What I took into April is here. What I took into March is here. What I took into February is here. What I took into January/the year 2022 in general is here.