It took a moment for the work-order to register, but soon enough it was inflicting my spirit like a sad, sad tune.
“Deflate swimming pool,” this addition to the Honey-Do Task List read.
That’s “swimming pool” as in “polyvinyl wading pool”: a wet-and-wild three-ring circus of splashing and spraying and hilarious hijinks whenever the grandkids come over for days of water-play during the summer months.
But come Labor Day, all that fun gets packed away – and its subtext is clear: another care-free summer, come and gone.
Precious Pool Days: These, too, shall pass…
And then there’s this: At one point (just a minute or two ago), the wading pool seemed plenty big, adequate for all three grandkids at a time. But now I have to wonder, will it have even another season left in it?
That’s the trouble with Little Ones: You add water, and they grow.
Then on top of all that, you hear Jimmy Buffett – the Prophet of Summer Pastimes – has died. No more “wasting away in Margaritaville,” not ‘live-in-concert’ anyway. All your pending “changes in latitude, changes in attitude” are likely to be a little less fun than they were before.
A sad, sad tune indeed.
Or is it rather a stumbling block?
That’s what I’m wondering this weekend, as I lounge poolside for the final time this summer. Surely, it’s good to give thanks for the wonderful soul-stirring moments in our lives: days of simple joy, cheeseburgers consumed in what might seem like paradise. But the Kingdom calls us forward. In this week’s gospel passage, Jesus exhorts us to set our hearts on divine things, not on human things.
And so I try, O how I try, to set those fading human things aside…and join with the Psalmist who sings an eternal tune:
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless You while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon Your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise You.
“O God, You are my God whom I seek…”
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 
So true, John! My 4 siblings and I (with spouses) returned to Long Lake in the Adirondack mountains two weekends ago, the first such gathering of us all in that place in nearly 50 years, since we vacationed there as a family for 12 or so summers. It was very emotional, missing Mom and Dad and our youth, but so grateful for these moments of remembrance and quality time together now. Although bittersweet, my overwhelming feeling was gratitude for such beautiful memories, both from my youth and from this precious visit. I want to “treasure up all these things and ponder them in my heart,” but remain open to the new ways that God is inviting me deeper into His love and love of my neighbor! Thanks for another great reflection! God bless. Jeff