At Summer’s End
by Mary Wakefield Buxton
Urbanna, Va.— Hello, dear readers… it seems just yesterday I was bidding you farewell and wishing all a happy summer. But oh my, how fast the time passed by.
I did my usual things—sailed, swam every day at the Urbanna Harbor pool, spent Friday evenings at Eckhard’s Restaurant celebrating the end of the work week. No vacations this summer. I went to Christ Church at least once a month. The church has become quite “Roman” these days under Father Paul Andersen’s leadership with red votive candles for prayers shimmering at the altar, a crucifix hanging on the wall, and more genuflection going on than in Rome. I expect a statue of Mary to be erected in the vestibule shortly. No matter. I love my church for its broad-based tolerance and accept whatever comes.
It was hot but what else is new for a Tidewater summer? I spent most days working at the law firm. It was both amazing and thrilling to be back to work again. Amazing because I turn 70 this month and who would have dreamed I would have returned to work at such an age? One never knows what life will deliver, which is what I especially relish about life… challenge to what each day will bring.
Then, thrilling because I learned so many new things. Learning provides great joy and I’m resolved to do more of it.
Best of all were the clients I met each day. Many were passing through difficult stages in life dealing with someone in the family who was gravely ill or had just lost a loved one. I was reminded once again to count blessings. If you feel well, can rise with the sun each morning, hear a bird sing, or take a walk in the garden with your dog, then you are the luckiest person who walks this earth.
As I turn 70 I am thinking of basic blessings. Like life itself, beloved dogs, family and friends. And work too. If you have a job, any kind of job (paid or volunteer), you are most fortunate.
Life passes by quickly. I think of the young girl that only yesterday was growing up in a small town in Ohio and free as the wind each summer… on my bike, with my dogs, surrounded by cornfields on the once wild, undeveloped shores of Lake Erie… forever exploring the surrounds of Vermilion. With loving parents and two dear sisters, the whole world ahead of me (Urbanna, Virginia!), and the sky as my limit, who could have asked for anything more?
How quickly the years have passed—college, marriage, Vietnam War, putting my husband through law school, various jobs, having children, many moves, and the daily writing that accompanied me most every year of my life. Writing was a part of life even as a child because Father right from the start always told me, “Mays, you’re a writer,” and, not knowing any differently, I spent part of every day writing down everything I saw. The way the bakery lady’s hand quivered when she had to cut a larger slice of pie for the customer under her stern daughter’s eye. How the banker spoke to the garbage man when he thought no one else was listening. How fellow classmates treated the new student from West Virginia. I learned quickly the best and worst of human behavior through close observation.
One mistake I made was not starting to appreciate life until my 60s. I looked on my life as some sort of entitlement and I took it for granted instead of what life really is—a gift from God. I share with readers this warning—don’t be a late bloomer to feeling simple gratitude. Enjoy every minute of life, even the troubled times, because life passes quickly and it is over too soon.
The other great lesson I have learned is much unhappiness in this world is caused by the simple thwarting of love. Let love command the day. As the poet Robert Browning wrote in his famous ending line in the poem, “Love Among the Ruins” … “With their triumphs and their glories, and the rest, love is best.”
Then there is the act of reflection. A life without such introspection, the capacity to doubt what we say and do, to keep rethinking our beliefs, opinions and behavior, is an empty life. As I enter the age of reflection in my own personal pursuit of truth and beauty, I invite my readers to join me.
Count blessings, appreciate life now, love family, friends, dogs, work if you can, let love bloom in everything you touch, and reflect on all that you do. Not a bad prescription for life at summer’s end.
(Next week join Mary as she ends 20 years of retirement and returns to work.)
