This Is How We Say Goodbye...

This is how we say goodbye…

There is blue beyond the scattered clouds. Steelhead come home and hoodies are seasonably overpriced. Window units sputter their last breath as we wait to see just how long we can wait before we forcefully flip the switch to heat. Wait for it. Bundle up. There are new hoodies in the closet and it isn’t that cold yet.

In form and fashion, we assemble and follow routine. Baseball becomes irrelevant as football becomes paramount, and we alter menus from fruit to chili. The parks abandon volleyball as the leaves opt for fall wardrobes and our children are relentless in their pursuit of one last minute of the outdoors before bedtime. Winter jackets in waiting, this is our final hurrah. In shirts and shorts and dresses and skirts we go for walks after sunset because the air is perfect and the landscape beautiful; each of us avoiding our seasonal kiss goodnight with what had been.

Goodbye to swimming, green leaves, ice cream, and lemonade. Goodbye to summer fun with reckless abandon. We must now acknowledge our diverse routines of school and work and return to normalcy. Some with joy, some with regret, we trudge through the remains of our warm air and walk back into the machine. Goodbye to summer loves and joyful vacations. We shall see you again soon, but it is time to stand strong and reluctantly embrace what we’ve always known is to come next.

With every cool breeze we dreadfully anticipate that lingering thought on all of our calendars where we slide down side roads and shovel our own paths. Yet we will do it every year with a type of local pride embroidered upon our sleeves and love within our hearts, for this is Lakewood.

This is our city.