Letter 44

School's Out

Dear Reader,

Much rain is expected for the next 10 days and I could not be happier.

Summer temperatures arrived over the last few weeks, and while I do like early summer mornings, and summer evenings at dusk and after sundown, the hot wind, humidity and sun’s rays seem to suck the energy out of me. My spirit and fair skin crave the cool, wet and damp.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to write. I have thought of many of you all who have subscribed, and sent good wishes your way. Writing the way I want takes time, and my head has been filled with work, teenagers and keeping my little corner of the world tidy and shining, attempting to polish it with any grace and class I can. It can be exhausting.

I completed another school year as a public-school nurse. It’s hard to explain how the job has affected me. If you have had a role where you are trained to be “trauma informed,” you might understand. The stress levels aren’t high like they might be at a busy emergency room with constant triage. It’s more of a continual feeling of waiting for something else, another unexpected problem or challenge, to tackle. It will likely take a week or so for my nervous system to reset. But I was thinking the other day about the primal instinct of it all.

In its basic, and perhaps overstated way, it is the evolutionary “fight or flight” reflex. You might have something similar in your life, although it might seem mundane compared to an apex predator ready to hunt you down. Maybe you avoid someone who drains the energy out of you (flight), or maybe you show up early to the DMV to get in line sooner (fight). Or maybe you sit at your desk and spray lavender scent into the air as you turn on your computer and log on to chill music to spend the hours in a windowless office with continual door openings (Of course, then I wouldn’t have come across this cool cat playlist.)

But today is about sitting on the screened-in porch among the plants and making plans to read the books and magazines on the night stand, lacing up those shoes for runs around the neighborhood and parks, filling those journals with ink and catching up with friends, including a trip West to hang with one of the most talented and loveliest people I know in a beautiful part of the country. And since budgets are tight and traveling the world isn’t an option this year, the Universe is bringing the World (Cup) to us in Kansas City. Hope to send you a correspondence from the festivities here in the next month.

In the meantime I leave you with lighter. Like, can we talk about the office meeting that might have gone into creating the images on the packages of HyVee (Midwestern, employee-owned) coffee?

Or, how every day is celebration of these perpetually hungry beings who open and shut our garage door at a frequent rate, including this young woman off to high school next year?

Or, the writers I am grateful for who give us longer-form journalism features on the fascinating middle-aged skateboarders and an interview with an A.I. actress?

The world is large and interesting and there is always hope. Thank you for reading if you made it to the end.

Love,

Traci