SUMMER
Men go forth to wonder at the height of
mountains, the huge waves of the sea – and forget to wonder at themselves. St. Augustine
The human spirit can be most
resilient. I think we all have greater
strength than we know – strength that often doesn’t manifest itself until put
to the test, like muscle working against weight. Our first forward-looking joy came when I
decided to go to graduate school. There
was not much life insurance money and I learned very quickly that I couldn’t
support my family on what I was making without supplementing from that
money. I also quickly calculated that it
would be gone in fewer than five years if we continued on that path. Rather than do that, I decided to use that
money for tuition towards a master’s degree that would boost me up four steps
on the pay scale.
When school was out that June, we
packed ourselves and an incredible amount of stuff into the family car and
headed for Provo, Utah, the town where I was born, and to the Brigham Young
University, Department of Educational Psychology. We got off the freeway in Springville just so
we could drive around the curve of the old highway 91 past the town cemetery
where many of my ancestors lie buried.
Somehow this symbol of death became a symbol of new life. My heart lifted as we made the turn onto 9th East and
I felt real joy for the first time in over ten months.
We settled into the dorms and a new –
if temporary – life. The kids soon found
friends among the other families in Heritage Halls (3 bedroom dorms with
kitchens) and the fun was on! I enrolled
Tunk in a program called Fun Festa (yes, that’s Festa not Fiesta) so he’d
have a safe place to be while I was in class.
He hiked the Y Mountain Trail, went miniature golfing at Trafalga, and experienced
a myriad of other wonderful things. The
older two were on their own more except for week-long experiences at EFY. We took time on weekends for picnics in Provo
Canyon, trips to Park City and Salt Lake, and one trip to Manti for their
summer pageant - when we laid out our sleeping bags in the dark and woke up in a
pile of horse manure! We did the Freedom
Festival Parade on July 4th and ate hot dogs and cotton candy and
candy apples and just felt summer!
Our church didn’t meet until 1:00
P.M., so each Sunday, I left the children sleeping and took long walks through
the town where I spent every summer of my childhood. I walked past my maternal grandmother’s home
and the place where my paternal grandparents’ home used to be. I saw the old Manavu Ward building where my dad
went to church and the spot where my great-uncle Jack had his market. I passed the old BY Academy building where my
father went to school and the Farrar Junior High and Provo High Schools where my
mother matriculated. I found a candy
shop where my granddad’s barber shop used to be (closed on Sundays) and
reminisced of trips walking downtown with my grandmother to Kress’ (no longer
there) and the Paramount Theater (which was.)
It was as if I was on a quest about which I knew neither the what nor the why.
Then one day, I was sitting on the
main steps that go up the hill to campus when I noticed a spider’s web covered with
dew. It sparkled like diamonds and I
gazed at it for quite awhile, asking myself, “What am I looking for?” The answer came like a blinding light: I was
looking for me.
Picture of waves on a rocky shore from www.hdwallpapersfull.com
No comments:
Post a Comment