Monthly Musing – August 2022 – Time revisited

The school Summer holidays are nearly over here in England. It’s the last day of August. Almost seven weeks have passed by and where has that time gone? What have we done with all of those hours? Well, in our case we’ve visited friends, had some time away, done some jobs around the house, walked the dog, had days and evenings out and most of all, had a rest. I have been grateful for the slowness of the mornings and for not having to battle with the rush hour traffic. I have been grateful for the difference in the amount of washing and ironing that I have had to do. I have been grateful to be able to stop clock watching, ready to abandon whatever I am doing to do the school run instead. Most of all, I have been grateful for not feeling as if I am constantly late.

I read these words earlier today as I was looking at old Monthly Musing blog posts and I wrote this paragraph in August 2015.  Seven years later, I read them again and I could have written them today – although not so small daughter has had more like ten weeks off school since finishing her GCSEs.  It’s going to be hard work getting back into routine, like squeezing ourselves into clothes that we’ve not worn for a long time and finding they don’t quite fit comfortably.  I have so appreciated not having to set an early alarm every morning and I am grateful to have had the time to spend with a daughter who really is not so small these days – she’s already taller than me and will soon be off to sixth form college.

With her induction day next week, I am doing everything to try to stretch the time we have left before the routine starts again.  We already know that time is flexible, and I was reminded of that in my earlier blog post; how it speeds past when we’re having fun and drags interminably when we’re not.  Whilst we’ve spent a lot of time together, I’ve also been finding time to look at the moon and the stars and to get up early enough to make the most of a quiet house.  I’ve been spending time outside in the garden, just sitting and watching the birds and the butterflies and somehow, it’s not as late as I think when I look at the clock.  I’m sure the feeling that we can bend time to our own shape is just an illusion but it’s one that I’ll miss when we’re back to being governed by bus timetables and menu plans and homework schedules.

This Summer has been a gift, perhaps reaching the end of the Summer season in our family as our youngest girl moves on to the next phase of her education and another step closer to flying the nest and living her own life.

Not yet, though.  Not for a few years yet and I won’t hurry that time along.  Perhaps by then I’ll have learnt the trick of stretching it just that little bit further – it’s always worth a try!