After August 1 the energy seems to change for those of us who live in the northeast. August signals the beginning of the waning of summer, even though it is often warm long into the fall. Summer is overripe, as are the tomatoes, peaches and berries, and produce is available in such abundance that we can't prepare and cook it fast enough. Yet, the energy feels a bit melancholical. School summer vacation is past the halfways mark, the first cooler nights crop up, on some days the temperatures are barely reaching the 80s, school supply lists are coming out, some school fall sports are beginning soon, and friends are trickling back into town from their vacations.

In the same way the first part of any trip is oriented out, and we slowly begin to look towards home again on the second part of a trip, August is all about a slow reorientation process back towards regular work and school schedules and the fall. We are not quite there yet, we have a few weeks to go, we are hanging on to summer, but it gets dark noticeably earlier than when summer began.

Let's savor those sweet August weeks to the fullest.