this has been an odd one

As the last day of summer slips by and my very favourite of seasons is about to begin, I find myself reflecting on the summer that was.

It was an interesting one, to be sure.

There was a lot of change. There were a lot of “a-ha” moments and moments of doubt. There were a few head-scratcher moments and also some moments of levity. I met a lot of new people and said farewell to others.

There were moments of clarity, where I thought I had it all figured it out. Elusive though those moments were, they were there.

And in between all those moments, there was Rocca – beautiful, dignified, noble Rocca – where the mind is always so clear and the heart is always so full.

And after Rocca, I returned to home to a summer that was waning and I realized that as summers go, this has been an odd one. A summer of learning, some of it hard, but all of it important.

It was an elusive summer in the way that I have always felt that blueberries are elusive.

Of all the glorious gifts of summer, blueberries have always been the one that is hardest for me to grasp.

I don’t have any fond memories of picking blueberries. I didn’t grow up with blueberry bushes nearby. I didn’t happily stumble upon baskets of them at the local farmer’s market (I didn’t even get to any farmer’s markets this summer …). I missed the sweet surprise of biting into a blueberry – the sensation of such a small thing that packs such a whollop of flavour and juice. Is there anything more evocative of summer than a tiny, perfect blueberry?

I missed it. Or at least I missed a good part of it.

I don’t really know what to say about this summer, except that it is a part of the year – my year – as much as any of the the other three seasons.