Two very special treats today. As I’m heading off on my walk, I hear from my son. He is on his way to Martha’s Vineyard and will spend the night. I have not been expecting this, and thought he might not make it down for another week. He will arrive an hour before the other treat I am expecting: my friend Liz, from San Francisco, is arriving for two nights. My daughter and I drive in and retrieve them from their ferries. I feel so lighthearted and full of joy to reconnect with loved ones on a gorgeous summer day. A beach day. Very much a beach day. My daughter and Liz and I spend a delicious afternoon on Lucy Vincent Breach, lolling in waves, pleasant big high ones. It’s a green flag day. We have the umbrella for shade and we talk non-stop all afternoon, treading water, walking the beach. Dinner outside, all of us, here. A simple, wonderful day of rest and fun and catching up on each other’s journeys. August just beginning; plenty of August left to enjoy. The fleeting fear it will go by too fast. The knowing it will be plenty.