Early Summer at the Lake

 You know, I never did finish my travelogue about spring break. And since then, we've been on several other trips. 

To review: we finished our spring break vacation with a short stay in Boston with family. I rented a car, and we drove to Providence, RI, to check out Providence College with our HS junior before heading north to MA. We also stopped at Holy Cross in Worcester, which has beautiful buildings, but no one was around, and we didn't stay to tour. College decisions are looming. Boston College was our third college visit of the trip, but most of that stay was centered around reconnecting with our son, cousins, and some old friends from our home schooling days in Norfolk, VA, who also now live in Massachussetts.  It was a delight to reconnect with them. We've seen them a few times since moving from Virginia in 2009, but we always pick up right where we left off. 

The same thing happened earlier in the month when met up first with family and then with friends from graduate school in Michigan.  We spent the first week of June soaking in sunny, mild days on Crystal Lake with my extended family. The weather was perfect.  There were some ups and downs with as many people were there wanting to do different things, but overall the memories we will hold on to are good - a bonfire with s'mores and a beautiful sunset, skipping stones at the Point Betsie lighthouse, bike rides around the lake with lunch at the Jewish deli in the middle of the ride, beach time and canoe trips, a short hike to the dunes, racing up Sleeping Bear dunes, ice cream at the Cool Spot and beach volleyball at the Frankfort pier, lots of pickle ball and communal suppers, a trip to the Farmer's Market and some souvenir shopping. In addition to all these activities, there was time to remember trips to the lake in childhood. E. B. White's essay echoed in my mind. I still gnawed on the question of what direction to take in this next stage in life - not just about whether to take the middle school job (which I have turned down, but keep thinking about), but about where to live and what to do with the years we have left. What are the values and activities I want to give time and thought to?)

Following the family reunion week, we spent a couple additional days with other cousins and the graduate school friends. The kids all got along well after the initial awkwardness of introductions. The 7-10 year old girls (4 of them) were immediate best friends, while the teenagers took a little longer to warm up. Pickle ball was a great equalizer and source of entertainment. Since the weather was messy, we also played cards, drank a lot of coffee, ate pastries and fruit, and took some misty hikes to Lake Michigan on the Old Indian Trail and to Empire Dunes. There was quiet time for reading in the mornings as the teens slept in, and the adults engaged in meaningful conversation to our hearts' content - also about what gives life meaning in this second half. How do we live out our callings? 

Over Memorial Day weekend, in celebration of my 50th birthday, I also had the opportunity to reunite with a couple of college friends and a cousin who is a nun in Nashville. We were a bit surprised by the skankiness of downtown Nashville - I'm not sure what we were expecting, but it was not the alcohol drenched, sweaty mess of the bars on Broadway. After our initial exposure, we avoided the area as much as we could since our hotel was downtown, and instead made trips to bookstores, cute coffee shops, a winery, a state park for a long hike, and to the convent where my cousin lives for a visit and historical tour. Again, lots of opportunity for deep conversations and sharing successes and struggles. Again, opportunity for reflection on where I am going in life and on how I can serve. 

As a travelogue, this is not providing much in the way of recommendations for destinations and good restaurants. I can cross travel writer off my list of potential careers.  After all of these long talks and opportunities for contemplation, reading, and discussion while on the road, I feel fairly sure that teaching is where my skill set lies, and that relationships are what bring salt and light to life, and that teaching allows me to form relationships with the world, as well as to continue to nurture my family in whatever way that looks as a parent to adult children - and a nine year old.  I still feel unsettled about whether I continue pursue teaching in higher ed or move to primary/secondary. My thoughts on where I serve best continue to shift. I just finished a book that provided a lot to cogitate upon, A Sacred Voice is Calling by John Neafsey, a Catholic psychologist, a discussion of which I'll save for another post, 

Instead a few photos: