August makes me grumpy. It always has. Not only are we knee deep in swampy, soupy summer now, but we know what’s coming – September… with all its false promise. We never learn, do we? Every year, we look to September with renewed energy and hope in our hearts (back-to-school! first-day-of-fall!), only to have that hope crushed out – mercilessly – by a month even hotter and more oppressive than August.

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed. ­– Mary Oliver, It Was Early

Summertime is a season like no other. Hot – hotter than ever – it speaks the language of fresh vegetables, ripened fruit, popsicles, and ice cream cones. In Beaufort, we find ourselves turning from Fourth of July fireworks to our annual Water Festival celebration. All are blessings as we cautiously move through months marked in a countdown toward the end of the hurricane season.

Remember when you first got email?

No? Then you’re probably much younger than I. More and more people are these days. But verily I tell you, children, there was a time when email simply didn’t exist… when humans were limited to painfully primitive channels of communication like the telephone, the fax machine, and an ancient priesthood of intrepid message-bearers called the US Postal Service.