I started this year with a live mother and mother-in-law and
a child still living at home.  The year
is only 2/3’ds over and I no longer have a living mother, mother-in-law or any
children at home.  The drought in
south-central Indiana has left the grass brown and crisp and the tulip trees,
cottonwoods and river birches have largely given up the ghost and called it
quits for the year.  There seems to be a
lot less life flowing through this place than there was just a year ago,
despite the difficulties that were flowing through the streams then.  Normally I can walk among the plants and see
the beauty and coax them into better effort. 
Now, we’re just all of us, out of energy.

This will pass.  It’s
simply a matter of redefining myself and reorienting to the new horizon.  But for the first time, I’m looking forward
to the winter that will erase the chalkboard of this year.