Today

My mother left for St. Louis this morning with a relatively tearful goodbye. She is not at all sure about this whole Gap Year thing. I ran a bunch of errands with dad (first stop Good Will, as mom is no longer here to see what I am getting rid of!), then, as it was a gorgeous day, I took my brother's rotund dogs for a forced march up to the headlands.

When I got there and saw the amazing blue ocean, as I walked back past a field with a hundred dragonflies soaring above it, as I passed the kids getting off the school bus after their first day of school, I thought, "This. Here. Today. This is why I am taking a gap year."

Lest you think my day was all poignancy, let me include a picture from later in the day. I saw this as I rode up the seacoast. It is not just that three teenage girls chose to set out a towel in the middle of a parking lot, it's that about 20 meters to their left is a beach.