I am a great believer in Perseverance. To keep going, despite the odds. Somehow, somehow (this I always believe), Things Will Work. {Yes, the caps help.} Somehow I/We will figure out What To Do. How to Fix This Mess.
We Shall Overcome.
It’s certainly been said by greater minds than mine.
And it’s true.
But sometimes it’s so hard to believe. To keep your chin up, maintain that stiff upper lip, to Try Try Again.
And July – its beginning brings the middle of the year. Six months have passed, six more await. That future which is always out there; all bright and shiny and beautifully unwritten. Blank and glistening; holding its breath as certainly as we hold ours; wondering what we will inscribe upon it. What future shall we write, draw, mold, and shape?
July is the time to take a deep breath and pledge yourself to Persevere.
It’s a hard thing for me.
July here at Witt’s End is a hot hot time. I am not a summer person; I enjoy the crisp Autumn, the joyous holiday season, the glistening snows of winter. I love a fire in the fireplace, a hot cup of tea beside me, thick socks, and warm layers of clothing. Perhaps a shawl across my shoulders, about my neck; boots laced high for snow drift hikes.
Witt’s End July offers none of these. It is too hot, often gusty. There is the fear of wildfire in our dry area, thus the summer months now hold a fear for me which I’ve never known before. And it’s unsettling. So I persevere and prepare. By organizing our things, by readying myself as much as I’m able should the worse occur. That emergency evacuation; that smoke from the hill, those bright flames here – right here too near me and mine.
It’s happened before (though we pray never again).
July is a month for clearing out and centering. A time to list the most important things: those photographs, these bins of childhood treasures. Our insurance information is here, the birth certificates too; this is the safe place we will all meet just in case.
{Whisper those last words, quickly and with a prayer.}
We persevere too by planting. Putting in more trees, finishing the sprinkler system; planting grass and flowers; we haul in brick to finish the courtyard, wood for those woodstove fires to be built in the fall. Planning is yet more planting: how shall we celebrate our country’s birthday this year? Placing days on the calendar aside as a time to urge our old and much loved R.V. high into the mountains once again; to fish, to hike, to build ginormous campfires. To rest and read and watch the stars.
July days stretch out, crisp and clean. Join me and fill them with what you will. Prepare and plan for the remainder of this fine year.
May it be even brighter and more shining in retrospect than it is this day.
Part of The Wilderness Path series
