Sunbathing

This is what my husband, Geni and I did for a short while yesterday afternoon when he and I sat on the lawn chairs we set out on the back of our small apartment in the woods, and Geni lay down on her favorite type of rug: green grass, as she squinted against the still bright sunlight.

We didn't stay long outside, though, since the cool of the spring evening soon got too chilly for all of us, and we decided to seek the warmth and comfort of the inside of our home.

Today has been another brightly sunny and warmish day, one of those days in Ohio that almost makes up for its dismal winter and early spring weather, and tomorrow is expected to be another knockout. Not a minute too soon, I say.

At my small college on the hill we only have 2 weeks to go for this semester to be over and nearly everyone, students, staff, and faculty alike, is looking forward to finishing. Well, some of my seniors have said they aren't as keen on leaving and starting their brand new lives, but that's unavoidable.

I won't miss this semester much, even when I've had great students in each of my classes, and they've been so much fun to teach. As I've mentioned often here this year, the pace of the semester has been simply overwhelming and it just seems to get exponentially worse, not any better, as we careen wildly to its conclusion.

This semester I've realized that it's imperative for me to protect the very little time I have to myself especially because at my small college on the hill I could fill up every moment of my day with some work-related event or task or conversation or meeting, and this would be quite natural, maybe even expected.

Many years ago, when I was a journalist, my job was my life, and there were so many days when, though I was ill, my passion for being a reporter and later an editor gave me the verve to face the day despite the unspeakable obstacles I had to deal with on a daily basis. Those days are long and, thankfully, gone.

At this much later stage of my life, what I do for a living, however significant and beloved and intrinsic, is not all I am. So I will welcome the end of this school year because for the first time since I started (and even since I finished) graduate school I will be able to experience a few months when I will not be almost completely consumed by what I do.

For now, before we go out to dinner with friends, and later attend a play directed by one of my students, I will sit for a while out there in the waning sunlight, with my husband and Geni, welcoming the quietude and the much needed halt in all I've done and all I've been this week at my small college on the hill.