If you take the hottest days of the season so far, some with record-breaking highs ("feels like" 46!)....
And you pack in a trip back to the city, which is a thing all by itself considering loading the boat and then the van in the heat (so grateful for AC in the vehicle!)...
Then add groceries, banking, laundry, supplies pick-up in prep for family time next week, and a haircut (which didn't turn out so well)...
Tuck in times to meet one new baby in KW, catch up with our kids, stop in at a friend's (every conversation a joy)...
Then add two nights of hot sleeping (really should have bought that extra fan), and a false alarm with our smoke detectors that happened just after I fell asleep and then had me on high-intensity for a little longer while after that (man, that's loud!)....
Then, next morning, reload the van, including a cooler that's going to have to do the trick for an extended period of time, be extra sure you've left the house in good order, which feels mentally harder to do given the poor sleep and continued heat (where's that list again?)...
Then stop in for two important connections in Toronto, one to meet yet another new baby (what a happy thing to celebrate!), that includes chatting with high school buddies not seen in decades (oh the stories!), and the other to briefly touch base with a family member facing impossible challenges with honesty and courage (so much more to say here, except there are no words)....
Arrive back to the cottage to still hot-enough-to-notice-while-loading-and-unloading-the boat temperatures, put away only what absolutely needs to be put away, collapse into bed where (yay!) blankets are actually needed because the heat wave broke...
Wake up to get ready for and then joyfully participate in leading the first service of Cognashene Community Church, right her on the Freddy Channel (always such a delight to open the season together!)....
Have a long and needed nap in the afternoon (Sunday afternoon naps are sacred) but still feeling very slow and low after...
And wind up the whole string of days with a perfect evening to calm and reorient myself by the water, being unfortunately and sadly overtaken by four-consecutive-hours of excessively loud music coming from neighbours on our little bay who seem to have forgotten the manners and restraint they've exercised fairly well in the last five years since we last had this persistent problem (and oh it's that dreadful here-we-go-again feeling).
By this morning, Monday morning, the morning of the week I usually find so positive and refreshing and shiny and new with so many wonderful possibilities ahead....Here I am trying to have grace with myself. since I'm up way too early, feeling unusually agitated, not quite yet able to settle into an intentional space of gratitude and joy.
The flow of these past "everything" days has pulled me in and out of really good and really not-good zones. When I lay it all out like I've just done here, I can see it. So I'm trying to only pick up the happy stuff, and then sort out what I need to do, if I can do anything, about the other stuff.
Good news is that residents of Georgian Bay Township do have a clear recourse in reporting noise complaints, the week ahead has us staying quietly put for the most part, the heat wave has broken for now with cooler nights, and hair grows.
And, of course, the abundance of life that is reflected in our events of the last few days is truly an amazing gift. I know that, and am grateful, truly.
Perhaps I'll get out for paddle number 10 today.
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