A Word Before We Begin
I thought more time would mean finally getting to everything I had been putting off. Instead, the summer showed me how easily we can overlook the life happening between our plans.
By the end of August, I could look back at the summer and make a list of everything I had planned but never got around to doing. The bags of potting soil I never opened for the flowers that eventually died waiting to be planted. The grill I barely used. The big vacation I didn’t take. The household projects I was sure I would finally finish.
I expected more from the summer. More time, mostly. For years, work took more of my time and attention than I realized. When that chapter ended, I imagined the hours would come back and I would finally get to everything I had been putting off.
Measured against the summer I had pictured in June, it felt as though I had missed it.
The problem with that list was everything I had left off it: a beach day with my husband, music playing through the house with the windows open, rides along back roads with my kids to see places we had never been, snowballs on hot afternoons, and evenings outside long enough to smell someone grilling nearby.
None of those moments had been part of a plan, which may be why I was so quick to discount them.
Each issue of Satchel Lane will begin with a question rather than a theme. September’s question came from that realization:
What are we missing while we’re busy getting ready for what comes next?
The lead essay, We Keep Getting Ready to Live, looks at how easily we can treat the present as preparation for a life that always seems to be one plan, purchase, milestone, or season away.
Also in the issue, there is a late-summer dinner for the grill, a waterfront town worth the drive, and a few things I think are worth your attention.
This isn’t about giving up on plans or trying to make every ordinary moment meaningful. Some days are hard. Some days are simply a little boring. But if we are always looking ahead to what comes next, it is worth asking what we might be missing right now.
I hope this first issue gives you something to think about before September gets busy.
Welcome to Satchel Lane.
— Kelly