Sunday afternoon I left LightGirl on the campus of Penn State University amidst hoards of other teens, all there for summer sports camps. There were boys there for wrestling, football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, swimming and etc. There were girls there for ice hockey, basketball, gymnastics, figure skating, softball, swimming and etc. Hoards.

I left her with a few of her teammates. They were standing outside of their dorm caught somewhere in between deer in the headlights and small children who had spied a fresh plate of cookies. They uncertain of which world to occupy, I turned and walked to the car certain that they would choose rightly. The ensuing phone calls have done nothing to disabuse me of this notion. She is, indeed, thriving.

In the meantime, LightBoy is attending a hockey camp of his own here at our home rink and is having a ball. I have no idea whether or not he is learning anything, but he is coming home tired and smelly so he is, in the least, active all day long.

It’s been an odd week. I came home on Sunday to shocking news. A friend’s husband had committed suicide back in December and my mother sent the obituary. Her children and my children play every summer up at camp in Vermont. She and I spend a good deal of time on each other’s porches dilly-dallying and chatting about everything and nothing. We look forward to each other’s company each year. We look forward to our families’ spending time together. But now there will be a hole ripped in her family and a hole in each of our hearts where her husband’s laugh used to be.

So much to process.

“Pink cards and flowers on your window,
The sun will set for you
Your friends all plead for you to stay.

Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple.
And the shadow of the day
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.

Will embrace the world in gray
And the sun will set for you,

The sun will set for you.
And the sun will set for you
And the shadow of the day,

Will embrace the world in grey,

And the sun will set for you.”
Shadow of the Day (by Linkin Park)