So Long Sweet Summer.

Have you ever heard that Dashboard Confessional song?

It reminds me of younger days. Specifically the year after college, after my friends and I traveled Europe and then I moved to Atlanta....I was so carefree, yet I didn't know it, but life was full and good, filled with adventure, unknowns and ideas for all that was ahead. While in Europe, on many of the train rides, I listened to a song such as this and journaled and thought a lot.

Pondering, as I watched Europe go by through a train window. I am still that same 22 (or was it 23?) year old gal in some ways but yet so different. Hopefully, in a good way different. But I sometimes yearn for those carefree days. No husband. No morgage. No real job. Grad school, yes, but not compareable to work.work.work. I didn't know the hurt in the world. My reality was different than the reality I know about now. The stories of kids and broken families that I have heard since then. My outlook was sunnier perhaps. But heartache is the same, younger or older. Things with Jonathan were unsettled. I dated looking for excitement but it wasn't satisfying. I had inner struggles of how to relate psychology and my studies to my belief in Christ and how He is working in the world. I was still my self with my own issues, 23 or 27.5 years old. Struggling, falling, needing grace. And more grace. Sweet fellowship was a blessing then. I had dear friends in Atlanta. Many dinners with laughing and wine, walks around the city talking, shopping and fun. I had more time for friends and people and that always means a more fulfilled life and time. Girl roommates watching sex and the city all day, walks around Piedmont Park, dinners with unlimited wine refills.

Ahhh. So many seasons in life, all with their sweet and yet hard moments.

Anyways, this song takes me back there and it reminds me of days like this, where summer is fading and a fall chill is in the air. The sun was gone today and I ordered wool slippers from LLBean....Yikes. Summer is officially gone, huh? White pants folded and put at the top of the closet. Summer concerts done. The pools closed. Tan fades. Vacation days consumed.

Here is to a new season...I'm reluctant to let go of summer but maybe the beautiful leaves and cool weather will romance me. I hope so.