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| NABBW Columnist - Living in the Moment
Wail
On, Dear Locusts “Rest
is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day
listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across
the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” To normal people, a locust’s cry probably goes unnoticed. It doesn’t consistently chat like the cricket does – a regular rhythm of chirp…chirp…chirp. It doesn’t entertain with a sporadic song like a bird does. To a normal person, a locust is that big bug that sheds its skin and freaks you out if you cross its abandoned path. I tend to freak out too, at the locust, but for an entirely different reason. In fact, this time of year, it seems that the random, lingering wail of the locust is all I can hear. It sounds like “Hurry! Summer’s almost over and you haven’t taken the kids to an amusement park yet.” Or, “How is it possible that you’ve pondered white, fluffy clouds and counted the seconds between lightening bolts and claps of thunder, but haven’t noticed one single shooting star?” The locust is my version of an alarm clock. The sound of one somewhere in the distance jolts me out of a trance and reminds me that if I want to take in all that summer has to offer, I’d better get to it. So, like any red-blooded woman, I decide that a good place to begin is my closet. I look past the tank tops and capris that seem to have been my uniform so far this summer and reach for the black & white polka dot sundress that taunts me all winter long. So what if I’m only going to the grocery store today? The locusts remind me that it’s high time that I wear it. Waaauh…. waaauh… waaaauh… waaauh…. 23 more evenings that my kids don’t have homework, how shall we spend them? Waaauh… waaauh… waaauh…. waaauh… 23 more days that we don’t have to be anywhere in particular. Waaauh… waaauh… waaauh…. waaauh… have I ridden my bike yet? Waaauh… waaauh… waaauh…. waaauh… there’s still time to read a (whole!) book by the pool. And so on – the locust reminds me that our family’s freedom is fleeting with every humid minute that ticks by. I want to exhaust my lofty options so that I am totally ready to surrender to the coziness of autumn by Labor Day. There are still more s’mores to be toasted, more fireflies that need to do time in a Prego jar. So, in the interest of living in the moment, I’m outta here. This month’s column may be short, but the carefree days (and nights) of summer suddenly feel shorter. Action Exercise: Visit Julie at www.julieclarkrobinson.com. October
2005: Sharpen Your Pencil |
Julie
Clark Robinson is the author of Live in the Moment (Beyond
Words) a fresh, funny and blatantly honest book about creating
one's own daily joy. She's also a frequent contributor to
the "Humor" and "Inspiration" columns
in Family Circle. National
Association of Baby Boomer Women Copyright
2005, National Association of Baby Boomer Women |