The summer of the dragonfly

I can't count the times this summer that I've seen dragonflies. They've been on my hikes, at soccer games, at cross country meets, and even outside in my Rose of Sharon. I've started smiling and noting everytime I see one, as it seems to be a harbinger of good. Because - dare I admit it? Am I tempting the gods to say the words? - Summer 2017 was pretty good.

1.  I finished the first Faber Adult Piano course and started on the second. I also love to play out of a Faber classics book and a Christmas book. I spend a lot of time at night playing the piano simply because it makes me happy to make music. I'm getting better. It helps that a person has put every song in both books on YouTube where he talks about the piece, describes concepts that might be new, and then plays it slowly with a metronome so that I can play along with him. While it makes me feel all sorts of vulnerable to put this here, here is a video of m playing Prince of Denmark's March. (My piano is old and out of tune...) 
2. In late July, we went to Park City for two nights. It wasn't fancy or even very notable, but we enjoyed it. We played in the pool together. Ben and Shane watched a soccer game at a tournament that was being played there that weekend, while I sat on the blanket and enjoyed my book (Strange the Dreamer) and tried to stay in the shade that they cast as they paced the field. We ate delicious breakfast both mornings, and even wandered around the Park Silly art/craft festival on the last Sunday it was held. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. August was a blur of soccer tournaments and games and training camps, as well as cross country meets and camps and Thomas's 12 hour fund raiser run/sleepover at the school. It felt like we were always rushing somewhere, but I enjoyed most of it, because sitting around in a folding chair outside or wandering around a park is pretty good down time. 
4. We had a few runs together that were adventurous. There is a canal road that I've always wanted to run on which came about one week thanks to soccer practice being held nearby. And we went to Sugarhouse Park on the afternoon of Labor Day and slogged through some 90-degree miles. I'm officially the slowest runner now in the house, which is awesome and humbling at the same time. It was bound to happen...

 

5.  My mom was sealed to my dad in the temple. I wasn't there, but I'm sure that it made my dad very happy.

6.  I was anticipating the first week of school being difficult. The start of school is a trigger, as my freeway incident happened on Ben's first day of 5th grade (why do I have to remember these things? Anyway.) I've finally gotten to a place, a real place, where I can be calm getting on the freeway. It's not always perfect, but I can do it and be confident that I can do it. I think that believing I can do it, and that I can trust that I can do it, has been one of the hardest mental struggles I've ever experienced. So in anticipation of the day, I decided I needed a henna tattoo for the first week of school. A girl in my neighborhood who I only very slightly know but who does henna answered a text from me one Friday night. The next day I had my hands done. I can't really describe the connection between knowing I can drive on the freeway and henna, but it gave me calm and reminded me to trust the universe just a little more than I'm naturally inclined to do. (The flower is modeled after the flower on the broken stone I loved in the Forum in Rome.)

7.  Reading: Game of Thrones book one, Midnight at the Electric, still getting through Full Catastrophe Living (everyone should read this book!!), When Things Fall Apart, The History of Love, Neverwhere, and a few others I can't remember.

8. Listening to some new podcasts: Tara Brach, The One You Feed, Slate's Trumpcast, and Oprah's Super Soul Conversations.

9. I cracked my phone. After almost 6 years of iPhones and dropping them hundreds of times each, my phone met its match at a soccer tournament.

10. Our summer menu consisted of a lot of hoagie sandwiches after soccer practice, watermelon, banana bread with pecans, stir fry, Cafe Rio Tacos, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
How was your summer?