It is Summer Solstice as I sit down to write this column, the longest day of the year, to be followed immediately by the beginning of the gradual diminishment of daylight hours into increasing darkness. (Just call me Suzy Sunshine!)

I love the lengthening of days that begins in December, thrive in the greater light of spring and summer, and begin to feel slightly depressed as we approach Summer Solstice and its denotation, at the very beginning of summer, of summer’s end and the fleeting nature of time.  I thrive in the light, and in being able to step outside into mild temperatures and gentle breezes that caress skin bared of long sleeves and over-garments.  I love summer, and toward its end will begin trying to clutch its dying remnants in my grasp, to slow its inevitable demise.  Fortunately, the grief of summer’s loss is tempered by the beauty of autumn which I love nearly as much as summer, save for its movement into winter cold and darkness.

I have found this summer particularly emotionally tumultuous, as much of it is taken up with travel – mine or Evan’s, or one week that we were able to spend together visiting Evan’s commune friends at their 40th reunion in Maryland, and the rest of it is taken up with preparing to leave for my Internship beginning in mid-August.

I have finally secured a house in Muncie, rented to me by a church family for a nominal fee.  It is about ten minutes from the church in a neighborhood in which they say I’ll feel safe walking my dog after dark.  I’ll be taking Channing, the dog most inclined to cuddle, while Evan stays home with Tesla, our greyhound, who is too elderly to endure the 2 ½ hour drives back and forth to Muncie.  Our plan is that one week Evan will drive down for a day, or maybe two, on the weekends, and the next week I will come home midweek for a day or two.  We’ll probably do that as often as possible until the roads get bad this winter.  Then we’ll have to content ourselves with phone and email.

I am excited about this Internship, and grateful that I obtained the Muncie placement.  But I have been taken aback by the extent of my sadness about leaving.  I’ll am experiencing “anticipatory loneliness,” missing Evan, missing my work at BUUF and my worship at my home church, missing my friends and family.  I’ve never moved away from home before; this is a big deal for me.

So I’m doing my best to stay in the moment, to feel my feelings, and to be gentle with Evan who is going through his own stuff as he looks toward this future year and the years ahead.

I will see you, or at least some of you, one more time (July 12th) before I leave, and I probably will find ways to check in on you while I’m gone.  And then, of course, I’ll see you all upon my return in nine months.

But what I want to leave you with here and now is this:  You, my friends, who have taught me so well and given me so much, will never be far from my heart this year while I’m gone.

So take care of yourselves and each other, have a good year, and I will see you soon.