It doesn’t really feel like August, does it? August usually means back to school shopping, finding out where you sit and how your classroom will be set up.  Or if you’re not connected to school, August often means preparing for fall trips or projects. But this year…what does August mean?

If you aren’t connected personally with schools right now, it may not have seemed like a big and heavy week. But get a real check in with any local students, parents, teachers, staff or people who love any of these types and you’ll quickly get to the impossible question of what to do about school.

So many of our usual markers of time and the patterns that we have followed have been transformed or lost entirely in the pandemic. We have to be newly intentional in claiming a sense of time’s passing, and to honor the shifting of the seasons, the losses and the achievements both big and small.

I am already so amazed at the deeply connected community that the people of Foothills have built.

A couple months ago, when I needed to schedule a (virtual) gathering, it was easy. No one was going anywhere, and all the usual plans had been cancelled or postponed. But in the last few weeks, this has started to shift. Restrictions have lifted, and many of us are finding ways to get “away” for the summer, even if it isn’t quite what we’d originally planned. Once again we’re talking about doodle polls and “squeezing it in.”