A 99-degree Friday, a graduation that restored my hope, and a book about a woman who got out of the car and walked away.
How was your weekend? Were you glued to the World Cup games or the Knicks? If you are a Knicks fan, congratulations. After 53 years they finally have another trophy. Fifty-three years. I cannot imagine waiting that long for anything, although I have been waiting for my hydrangeas to turn blue for about seven years now, so maybe I understand a little.
And the World Cup. It has only just started and already I can feel it taking over. Everyone has opinions. I am mostly just enjoying the spectacle of it all, the pageantry and the flags and the fact that for a few weeks the entire world is watching the same thing at the same time.
I know I should be writing about the graduation. I know that is the story of this weekend. And I will get there, I promise. But can we talk about the heat first? Because it was 99 degrees on Friday and I am not okay with that.
Ninety-nine. In June. Mother Nature, this is August weather and you know it. We are barely into summer, the pool towels are still crisp from the store, and you are already serving us almost triple digits. I would like to speak to a manager.
Bill and I went for a walk at six in the morning and came in looking like we had run a marathon. The dogs went outside, turned around and came right back in. Even the hydrangeas looked tired, and they had not done anything all day.
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Caps, Gowns, and a Heart Full of Hope
Now. The graduation.
We spent part of the weekend at a high school graduation and I have not stopped thinking about it. There is something about watching a football stadium full of eighteen-year-olds walk across a stage that does something to you if you let it. The caps and gowns, the nervous laughter, the parents dabbing their eyes with tissues they swore they would not need.
Some of those kids are heading to college. Some to a trade school. Some are enlisting. Some are starting jobs on Monday. Every single one of them walked off that stage and into something new, and watching them do it with that mix of terror and joy on their faces was one of the most hopeful things I have seen in a long time.
But it was the speeches that got me. The valedictorian and salutatorian stood at that podium and said the thing I wish someone had said to me at eighteen: you are already someone. You have already made a difference. You have already changed the life of someone sitting in this room. What comes next is just the icing on the cake.
Watching those young people step off that stage and into their lives, I thought, we are going to be just fine.
Pool Days and the Art of Doing Nothing
The rest of the weekend was exactly what a weekend should be. Talking, laughing, lounging by the pool with good food and good company and nowhere to be. The kind of weekend where the hours stretch out and nobody is watching the clock.
I am getting better at this, the doing nothing. For years I could not sit still without a list running through my head. Now I can sit by a pool with a book and a glass of something cold and call it a full day. Growth.
What I Read
I finished Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood this weekend, poolside, and I have already started telling everyone I know to read it.
If you loved Bernadette Fox, Eleanor Olyphant, Rosie from The Rosie Project, or Ove, you will love Grace Adams. Grace is forty-five, perimenopausal, stuck in traffic on the worst day of her life, and she does the thing we have all fantasized about. She gets out of the car and walks away. Just leaves it there, in the middle of traffic, and sets off across London on foot with a two-hundred-pound birthday cake to win back her estranged teenage daughter.
It is funny and heartbreaking. Grace used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But somewhere along the way everyone forgot, including Grace. This is the day she reminds them. And, most importantly, reminds herself.
What I Watched
I watched Inside a Storybook Garden from Gardenworthy this week and I have watched it twice already. Ruth McKeaney takes us on a tour of her Pennsylvania farm, where a once wild and neglected landscape has been transformed over years of patience and vision into the most beautiful series of gardens. A kitchen garden for daily cooking, a cutting garden for gathering armfuls of flowers, structured beds alongside romantic, more relaxed corners of the property.
What I love about this one is that Ruth does not pretend it happened overnight. Every part of that garden tells a story of transformation, one that is still unfolding with each season. If you love gardens, pour yourself something and settle in.
Outfit of the Week
Don’t you love a pop of red in the summer? Me too! Last year it was “tomato girl summer” this year I am not quite sure which way everyone is leaning but I have seen a lot of whimsical bags and bright colors. This easy outfit is pair of shorts, stripe shirt and a fun bag with a simple slide. That’s all you need.
Outfit Details Below
That is your Monday, friends. Heat and hope and a very good book. I am heading into this week with the air conditioning on high and a little of that graduation optimism still buzzing around in my chest.
Did you attend any graduations this spring? What is the best piece of advice you heard from a commencement speech, this year or any year?
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