Seasons are a strange and fascinating phenomenon to me. What is it that makes one melt into the other, and what would happen if suddenly they just stopped and the weather was the same all the time? I know that's the case in some places at the poles and right on the equator, but I don't aspire to live in any of those places. I love seasons because they mark time and keep us honest about who and where we are. It's impossible to run from them. I can't pretend like I'm satisfied being stuck in a rut or living in complacent comfort when the wind is blowing out the old and carrying in the new. The seasons remind me that time marches on with or without me, and I would do well not only to flex with them but to push myself and dare to be made better with them.
I think - I hope - July 15th is officially the middle of summer. In Georgia, the seasons work something like this: fall and spring are one fabulous month each (November and March, respectively). Winter lasts from December to February. And summer is seven grueling months long, with April and October acting as transition months that sometimes produce a comfortable day or two. It's not a good place for someone like me. I need a much longer fall and spring, and if the scales have to be tipped in favor of hot or cold, I'd much prefer winter. So here I am in New York. From what I can gather based on the year I lived upstate and the time I've spent studying the monthly averages on weather.com (a must for someone like me whose life is dictated by the rhythms of rainclouds), the rundown is as follows: fall and spring are each two months long, thankfully (September and October; April and May). Winter is a full five months. Again, the bookending months are transitional and could go either way temperature wise, but there's potential for snow anytime between Halloween and late March. When I lived in Schroon Lake, we got dumped on the last week of April, so even those limits are somewhat loose. That leaves three months for summer - June, July, August. I can barely remember what it's like to have summer leave with Labor Day. September is warmer on average than May, so I likely won't be wearing a jacket till toward the end of the month, but I think the dog days should be well on their way by the time school starts. I'm praying so, anyway! And so today is a day to celebrate. Six weeks of summer are behind, only six remain. For the first time, I may survive summer without wishing the sun would go hurling through space, never to be seen again.
Some of you had no idea I had that much to say on the weather, and you're removing my page from your bookmarks as we speak. I assure you, this won't be a common occurrence. I can't promise it will never happen again; I'm very likely to burst out in praise of the autumn colors and the first snow, but I'll try not to wax philosophic about average temperatures anymore.
Here's some pretty big news: we've officially decided to move on from the Harlem House. Clint, Laura, Mallori, and I were the only remaning ones who had a desire to stay and keep the house going, and we agreed together that we couldn't take on the financial burden. It wouldn't be wise to sign a lease for more than we can promise collectively, and there's no guarantee that we would have come up with enough housemates in time to provide the difference. So Laura and Mallori and I have decided to live together, hopefully in a three-bedroom apartment around this part of town. For work reasons, we can't live too much further downtown, and we like it up here, so it makes sense to stay. I, personally, am officially stressed, because I'm really not sure it's humanly possible to do what we have to do in two weeks. I am really sick of moving, but I'm glad I'll feel a bit more settled in this next place, since it won't be so big and so dependent on a large group of people. I just have too much stuff, and it took a whole van to get it here, and now I have to figure out a way to pack it all up again and get it somewhere else when I have no transportation aside from the subway. We're planning to rent a van together and move all our stuff at once, but that's kind of immaterial considering that we don't actually have a place to move it yet. Here you can find a place in a pretty short time, but what with credit checks and time needed to get the place ready, I have my doubts that we'll find something in time. If that's the case, then I don't know what happens. Hopefully Adrienne will have mercy on us and let us stay until the place is ready, but she's trying to lease it out to someone else, and they may want to move in August 1st, which would be fair enough. God has worked abundant miracles in the past six months just to get me where I've been, and most of it was done pretty much behind my back, without my knowledge at all. So the fact that He could do all that sans any help from me tells me that He can definitely do this one little thing, but I won't really feel ok about it until I'm asleep in my new apartment. On my camping mat, since I have about 37 cents in the bank and the bed I'm sleeping on now will go with Debby to her new apartment. It could get a little bohemian in the next couple months as I try to hold it together. This being paid by the city thing is getting a little bogus - technically they owe me about $2400 at this point, but I haven't seen a dime.
I'm just ready for fall. I'm ready for that drop in temperature and those leaves, I'm ready to be settled long-term in a new place, I'm ready to start my real job and be paid every two weeks whether I send in a time sheet or not, I'm ready to start my Redeemer small group (I found one that will consist of people who have just graduated college and moved to the city; it will be a girls group that is partnered with a similar guys group for social stuff), and I'm ready to see if any of these magically close friendships I seem to have formed will last. That was a long sentence. This summer has just been so all over the place in terms of people and working and living and figuring out my way around and heat and sweat. It's been an intense season on more than one level; I'm ready for things to cool down. I'm not under the illusion that teaching will be easy in the slightest, but it's far closer to my element than anything I'm doing now, and at least it's a steady paycheck.
Well, tonight Diva is hosting Soul Nite at our house, which is essentially an open mic artistic expression thing. Hopefully the house won't overflow, because tomorrow Adrienne is supposed to walk through it with us to discuss what needs to be done when we move out, and I want to go to bed before dawn. I hope that you're all staying cooler than I am, and that you know where you'll be living in August.
Song In My Head: "Every Season" - Nichole Nordeman - one of my favorite songs back in high school. It's kind of a poetic interpretation of everything I said about seasons at the beginning, and applies it to our spiritual lives. It's very encouraging.
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