I’m definitely having a wee bit of summer melancholy. It’s the August-is-here-summer-is-fleeting variety. I don’t feel recharged yet. I thought of summer as recharge time. It’s more like four-kids-many-transitions-bunches-of-work busyness this year.

And in truth, that’s really okay.

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One thing that’s made summer summery for me is seeing old dear friends who don’t live here yet tend to pop in annually. That meant a very sweet week with my pals, Marci and Evan and their kiddoes.

Saskia and I went to a party they threw. Another grouping amongst us went blueberry picking. There was some farmers’ market, jam making, play watching, and friend connecting and of course Herrell’s ice cream eating. Their one goal for their week in the Valley: eat Herrell’s every single day. They achieved their goal.

Saskia found Piper, age six, to be wholly her friend-slash-new-idol. Marci and Evan are godparents to her and she “got” it, the way some adults hold you especially dear.

I have no idea why, but she and Evan took to calling one another George.

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The phenomenon of one’s kids loving one’s friends’ kids is jam-my sweet. We have my pal Emily’s son Sam here from London this week. Sam and Lucien were quite surprised a couple of weeks back to run into one another at the Haverford College cafeteria during their respective summer programs on campus.

Emily and I spent many a nauseated afternoon together in London awaiting Sam and Ezekiel’s arrivals. Both boys are taller than their mamas and nearly 16.

Mind blown, check.

I loved living a few blocks from Emily and her husband, Tim. I’ll admit that the notion of their eldest son, Noah, possibly attending Amherst College is exceedingly tantalizing, because we’d have some added opportunities to see them.

**

I’m really glad some of my nearest and dearest folks in the universe live physically crazycloseby. I wish I could magically import some other favorite people. The fact that our conversations and connections feel vital and ongoing even with physical distance and that when I see certain folks, it’s just so comfortable and easy and dear, well, it affirms how much I wish I could make that dream come true.

I can’t. I have to settle for summer.