September 2014 - Summer Finale

September always arrives in a burst of green and gold. Goldenrod and sunflowers gild the ground just as the leaves in some trees are beginning to turn yellow and rattle in the breeze. Everywhere else is still a deep Atlantic summer green.  Huge dragonflies and crickets roar out a crescendo of sound at the season’s grand finale.  And so do we. Our last several weekends have been full of music: Opening for the Mallet Brothers (and joining them onstage for a song) at the Dover amphitheater; playing Eagles’ tunes all night with my neighbor’s friends at an “up-camp” bean-hole-bean supper; performing with my father and my band at our own house party; and tearing the hair off my bow at some friends’ annual backyard rock and roll fest.  These days, I don’t expect anyone to follow my fiddle tunes, I just grin and say, “play something you know, I’ll follow you.” Zach has been a supportive fan and last night he gave me one of the nicest compliments I’ve received yet: “The fiddle gives the music more dimension, like taking something made with white sugar and adding in a bunch of wild honey.”   This is all the more poignant since we just harvested 60 lbs of honey from our first hive and are now putting it on everything, it is so wonderful. 

Jonah is taking off with music now too. With his head for math, he’s already better at music theory than I ever was. I couldn’t have been more pleased than when he told me the other day, “Playing guitar is as much fun now as playing video games.” We are trying hard not to overschedule our children, but Jonah wants to keep taking guitar lessons through the school year. We’ll see if he still feels that way when the homework burden really hits – it may become too difficult to keep practicing every day. Plus, now he has signed up for chorus and band. Trombone?!

The kids restarted school this week. This year I was ready for it.  We bought all the school supplies in advance and Jonah set up his binder for 4^th grade following the very specific instructions given by his teacher. I bought the kids a few new (or “new-to-us”) clothes, new gym shoes, washed their backpacks and cut their hair. I feel, in retrospect, like a supermom.  But of course, the reality was that Zora melted down in the Stride Rite and she didn’t actually get her new shoes until a second trip to a different shoe store. And the kids fought in the school supply aisle, threatening to harm one another with protractors. And the backpacks were still slightly wet went they went off to school, having only been washed the night before. Oh well.

In September, with the kids back at school, I can refocus on work. I am preparing for 3 major presentations this fall, including at an oral presentation at the American Public Health Association conference. It has been a year of stretching myself to be able to accommodate higher levels of public performance than I have ever been comfortable with before, both professionally and musically. Strangely, the two dimensions seem to complement one another, with success at one building my confidence to take on the other. Lastly, I agreed to serve as an assistant coach for Zora’s soccer team so that she could play (she’s one grade too young, but really wanted to join a team). I have a huge learning curve, but this year it’s just another stretch among many. It seems that as you get older, there are less and less people above you to take on those responsible roles, so someone has to do it, and if you’re able enough and willing enough people will just toss it in your lap, grin at you and say “go!” Next thing you know you’re playing along, doing the best you can to keep up with the music.