Observations On Summer's Waning

I can feel the end of summer coming on. It was acutally chilly last night and I had to close my bedroom window. The garden looks tired, and I'm tired of dealing with it. I don't have too many things that bloom this time of year and all the flowers that are finished need to be dead-headed and cleaned up. The tomatoes blighted and the beans are finished. Everything looks over-grown. It will almost be a relief when the first frost comes (in as soon as a month from now) and I can cut everything back to the ground, spread out new mulch, and wait for the cycle to come around again.

The kids started public school over a week ago, and classes started at the University today. That always lends an air of finality to summer and causes a lull in tourism here. Business in the galleries slows down (which is not good considering that sales were not all that great during the summer this year). They'll be back in October to look at the leaves from perches on the ridges, and we'll have the usual Holiday rush. Then we all hibernate for the winter and nothing happens. Even though we have ski resorts here, the people that come to ski usually don't go shopping. They spend their money on lift tickets, hotels and food. Usually this time of year makes me sad because I LOVE summer. But this year it doesn't seem so bad. I'm actually looking forward to the seasonal changes coming up.

I've noticed that I'm becoming a person who doesn't get so riled up about things that I used to be passionate about. I just don't want to deal with the drama any more and my life is so much smoother and happier since I decided to let go of some things. (Go figure!) There are just too many important things to concentrate on and the small stuff gets in the way. This recession as caused me to re-think a lot of things and to do without some things. I realized that I really don't miss them. I think one reason that our co-op gallery members get along so well is that the majority of us believe that things are running smoothly and no one wants to muddy the waters. It's obvious that the ones who want to change things, or complain, haven't embraced the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" attitude. And, if enough of us want to make a change, I can go with the flow. No more digging in my heels and being obstinate. It doesn't sound good to say that "I just don't care", but that's the way it is sometimes. I find myself saying "whatever", but not with the eye rolls that teenagers do when using that statement. Is that stupid, or am I finally getting older and wiser?