SUMMER PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Happy Summer!

Summer for me has always been a relaxed, laid-back time of year. Growing up, summer meant heading out to visit one or both sets of grandparents, fishing in the lake, walking miles along the railroad tracks, driving out early in the morning down country back roads to find the turtles which would become week-long temporary pets. In my adult life, although I didn’t choose a career directly in education, I have ended up with jobs that have seaasonal fluctuations, and there’s always a summer lull. Working for a performing arts center, many of our tenant organizations take a summer break; it’s a time for getting the walls repainted, the floors refinished, and the carpets cleaned. Relax, regroup, reconsider.

I’m finally wrapping up the crazy season of feeding hundreds of oak-eating Polyphemus caterpillars. A crop of a couple hundred of them go through pounds of leaves every day, and they have kept me hopping. I will have small crops of various types going on until some time in October, but the big rush is ending for now. While the temperatures are regularly in the triple digits for late July and most of August, I get to dial it back a little, take things easier. I’m planning to spend some quiet time in the back-yard rocker with some linen handkerchiefs in my lap, hemming for the CHT favors while I watch the chickens peck and cluck.

I hope that you all can get some peaceful down-time this summer too. Listening to the sounds of the cicadas in the trees is the perfect time to daydream, to plan where to go next, to think about what to focus on once the mercury climbs back down and it becomes possible to contemplate being more physically active without becoming wringing-wet with sweat. For now, it’s iced tea, lemonade, reading magazine articles, looking at books, thinking and dreaming. Dream a little daydream for the Guild, too – think of where you’d like to see us going over the next year, so we’ll all be fresh and invigorated and ready to get back into gear this Fall!

Michael