The Best of Times ~ Gratitude and Grit

Ganley's!

The Last Sunset of the Family Season

Bill & Sara

The kiddos in the sunset

Sunset Salutations

My favorite moment ~ improvised hymns

Mary's Sunflower

My new coffee pot

Summer friend

Trying for Prairie

Bill can do it too!

The lilies

Yellow

Pollinators

State Fair Zinnias

My happy place

Home is where the heart is

The way the summer went. . . 

The best ice cream ever made in the whole world

Family

S'mores

It was a very good year for the garden

Sneaking around with Janel

Flowers from the gardens of friends and family

Unbelievable

Planning for the apartment

Tuesday was my first day off at home in a very long time. What have I been doing all summer? Five weeks of full studio teaching, two weeks of Zoom piano camps, I took one SAA teacher class from Fay and taught one SAA teacher class with Vickie, we entertained at the cabin ten weekends in a row, many, many zoom recitals and ice cream social distances (my backyard recitals) and I held one outdoor recital at the Little Pines Lodge, where our best social distancing ideals were interrupted by a tornado warning.

On my day off the kids set me up with Spotify. Where have you been all my life? Suddenly I have access to all my long lost vinyl. James Taylor and Carol King live at the Troubadour was right there waiting for me. The second thing I found? Eighties power ballads.

My relationship with the band Styx? Buy ten albums for $.01 through the Columbia Record club. Go to church camp and decide they are the work of the devil. Destroy them. Buy them all back in college. Jam Babe and The Best of Times at the piano with friends belting out makeshift harmony. And there it all was just waiting for me on a family Spotify account. Calvin and Mary rolled their eyes big time.

Tonight's the night we'll make history
Honey, you and I 
And I'll take any risk to tie back the hand of time
And stay with you here tonight
I know you feel these are the worst of time
I do believe it's true
People lock their doors and hide inside
Rumor has it, it's the end of paradise
But I know, if the world just passed us by
Baby I know, I wouldn't have to cry, no no. . . 
The best of times. . . . 

Cue the drum fill and the rock piano. The song is stuck in my head and seems so completely appropriate for this summer. Tomorrow we move Calvin into his new apartment in Iowa City where he can Zoom into his college classes much better than upstairs in his room here in Eagan.
I get it. Nineteen-year-olds are not necessarily supposed to be hanging out with their family for six months straight. As a greedy half empty nester I took this time and ran with it. Amid the global suffering, I've been in seventh heaven. Family walks, family dinners, family games, family TV nights, family calendar blocking time on the Steinway. . .family bullet journal meetings.

These months. These awful wonderful depressing sacred months. The four of us here in the house having extended family time that wasn't meant to be and probably will never be again. You know me, and you know that my heart is being squeezed tightly at the thought of it all coming to an end. Tomorrow.

It won't be the same this year. Calvin and my mom won't be able to pop in the car for the weekend and come see Mary in the EVMB, and in other musical productions. COVID is still here outside my bubble of family and friends at home and the cabin. There won't be any musical productions and the high school band directors are doing their best to lift up a couple hundred kids after the death of their colleague, Mr. P,  and the cancellation of virtually every thing these kids look forward to.

The headlines read, "These are the worst of time"
I do believe it's true
I feel so helpless like a boat against the tide
I wish the summer winds could bring back paradise. . . 

How will we do COVID without the four of us safely here, without cabin weekends, without the garden? That is a very good question. Band director Mr. G told the band kids that band director Mr. P held two values close in his final days fighting cancer: grit and gratitude. I'm going to spread those values and try to find them in my own head.

I'm AM so thankful for this unprecedented (sorry kids, I had to fit that word into a blog about the pandemic) family time we have had. Through all of the canceled trips and ruined plans, we held it together and mostly got to see the friends and family we needed. Nature helped. Zoom helped. Walking helped. Masks helped. Gratitude is an easy one for me.

Now comes the grit part. Staying positive for Mary and my piano kids and doing some creative planning to make sure everyone, including me, has something to look forward to. Buckle down. Double up on the vitamin D. Pay the Zoom bill. Find a winter sport. Follow the example of our parents and grandparents. Avoid adopting any more cats.

Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime
We'll take the best, forget the rest
And someday we'll find
These are the best of times

Blessings to everyone sending their kids off to college and making decisions about school. I'm especially thinking of Casey, Maria, and Jill. May those moms and everyone else, be filled with gratitude and upheld with grit. Amen.
Sara