How is it already July?

Wasn’t it just Christmas?

Oh, right…it was just Christmas — then Valentine’s Day. Then it was St. Patrick’s Day, then Easter, then Memorial Day.

Every year around this time, I wonder where the time goes. Being that I prefer the cold, the gray and the rain to the warmth, I of course marvel at the quickly-passing year in sweltering temperatures and with humidity wreaking havoc on my hair. Joy.

I don’t know how long this thought process has been going on, but my guess would be for at least ten years.

Ten.

Years.

I was 26 ten years ago. I hadn’t yet moved across country (again), I was dating someone who was a horrible fit for me (also again), and I had no idea who I was. I still kind of feel like I don’t. Some things never change.

But this decade, it doesn’t matter. Life has a way of moving along, but also slowing down your concerns about the future — at least it does for me. Maybe that indicates we know ourselves better than we think we do. Or maybe it simply indicates we’re resigning ourselves to the mere passage of time. I prefer to believe its the former.

It seems like just yesterday I was taking baton lessons. Gymnastics. Clarinet. Watercolor painting classes. Voice lessons. Guitar. Bass. And piano…piano…piano.

It feels like just the other day I was choosing my next My Little Pony, my next Barbie, learning how to ride a bike, how to braid, how to shoot a three-pointer, how to drive and I could swear I just recently picked out a couple of prom dresses. Then I went off to college. That was just the other day, wasn’t it?

Oh, college. I found my way — at times blindly — through scheduled classes and unscheduled bumps on the road of life. I lost my heart, lost my mind, lost my innocence, then met people who restored it all. Then more who took it all away again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

It’s already July, yes, but the summer of our lives shines a warm, accepting light on all that we’ve been through, endured, willingly set out to experience and that which we’ve had no control over. It illuminates the lessons we’ve learned, the deficits and cracks wherever need more knowledge and highlights the good part of the bad stuff we’ve seen. It’s a season of silver linings, if you will. And there are more to come.

Tonight I am thankful for the passing of time — His time — that I sometimes grumble about, but which has immeasurable benefits that I appreciate and respect. Its teachings are custom-made for our ways, and it knows us inside and out. It knows what we can handle, what we need still and how much we can take.