It was a hot summer night but we were on the beloved back deck anyway celebrating it and each other on a Monday night. There was tons of food and drink. The collection of people was erratic and those meeting for the first time quickly became friends. Prayers floated to the sky as laughter. The air conditioned crowd remained inside through their laughter mingled with the outsiders. People flowed freely back and forth ... inside and out.
It was laid back Beach house stuff.
People started leaving at some point and after a while there were just a few of us. My guests did all the cleaning and now my refrigerator has enough leftovers inside to feed Ethiopia. Then I was left with one friend and we stood in the front yard under the Milky Way talking for the longest time.
Afterwards texts floated across cyber space and everybody kept talking. It was around midnight when I finally went to bed.
"What is the difference between last summer and this one?" I was asked as we walked Goddess in the early morning as a breeze blew salty air at us across the Back River.
"Hmmmm," I mused out loud. "A lot."
Last summer I was a mess. I'd left a career and had been left too ... finding myself suddenly single. I was burned out, crashed and burned and then was left to wallow in a sadness that dragged throughout the summer. The first part of last summer I hid out in St. Martin surrounded by friends but they left and I stayed on alone ... and a Sabbatical was born.
I'll never forget returning home. There was this tiny collection of friends waiting on me. They were scared for me actually so they stood vigil ... and they loved me through. In the midst of this old friends were raised from the dead and we all re-membered ... bringing ourselves back together again. Fran, who is long dead, sprinkled the green spouts of new life on me and reminds me every day that ... my life is now.
Then there is this one friend, relentless in love with a shocking consistency.
And a year passed.
This has been a summer of celebrations. We keep finding reasons to have more of them. Birthday parties that aren't on birthdays ... cookouts because its a Monday ... the Friday night collection to listen to the Samuel Adams Band ... Bar Church ... beach swings ... bike rides to all of the destinations ... long walks along the Back River ... small gatherings on a sad little holy dock.
Last summer was dancing in glue ... this is an endless summer.
Or I least I want it to be.
It seems as though everyone around me is being reborn. Not in the Jesus saves me way ... but in our own ways ... each of us complimenting the other ... understanding that we only have ourselves to get one another through. Births can hurt like hell I am told so what makes us think that re-births don't either?
Once you get through though ... well it is better than it was before.
"Endless Summer" is also an album by The Beach Boys. It is a crazy wild collection of songs that don't really belong together. "California Girls" turn into "Fun, Fun, Fun." "Help me Rhonda" means "Don't Worry Baby." You can "Catch a wave" ... "In my room." ... "All summer long."
It is crazy ... like our lives! I believe that we are given things in their right time. Friends show up just when they're needed the most. Marriages end when they've run their course and individuals no longer help one another grow but stay together ... because you're supposed to. Children become adults and leave ... if you're blessed, they become your friends. Unexpected opportunities arrive when you expect them least. Love finds you when you're not looking for it.
But every single one of us reach this moment ... when we're standing alone staring at the ocean ... or off a mountain ... at a wall in a coffee shop ... sitting in a church pew ... waking up beside someone we've never slept with before ... or just taking a long walk with a dog who loves you more than anything ...
Revelation occurs. "What was once is no more." I am being re-born. I am being re-membered.
Then Kid Rock blasts across the airwaves. "All Summer Long" is suddenly different! The Beach Boys are no more but the music is just as good. I get up and dance.
Yeah this summer is so much more ... my life is so much more ... my friends are so much more ... my love is so much more.
