Seasons of Love

That is the title of one of my favorite songs ever. Not just from a play, but ever. I love that the song makes you stop and ask the question "how do you measure a year?" Is it sunsets or midnights, report cards or speeding tickets, laughter or strife. However you decide to measure a year, you have five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes to do it. 525,600 experiences, emotions, opportunities to be a part of, to feel, to take advantage of. It makes you really think about time and how it passes and what we do with it.

This morning I woke up to a chilly house. I figured I had just turned the A/C on a ridiculously frigid temperature, but I awoke to find that fall has come to Beaufort - in May. And the blissfully breezy weather made me wish my summer away. I am ready for Fall, I thought. Ready for the smell of leaves burning, ready for the taste of pumpkin pie and roasted turkey, ready for the sights and sounds of Saints football! I was ready for it all. Let's just skip past the laborious days of summer and jump to beautiful crispness of late September. Let's walk through the neighborhood and spot pumpkins on the doorsteps and the subtle change in the leaves on the trees. Let's just wake up to September!

And as pleasant as it sounds at times to jump right past the heat of July and the anxiety of hurricanes in late August, to do so, I'd be skipping past the moments of my year. I'd miss the pride I feel at the Memorial Day parade, the joy and warmth of our community at the Fourth of July events in our neighborhood, the the fun and excitement of Waterfest. The thing is I measure my year in the memories we make. I see our life as a never ending scrapbook of the experiences we share and the people we share them with. And in the end I want all 525,600 memories of my year.