Just a Dream and the Wind to Carry Me

“Well, it’s not far down to paradise
At least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

It’s not far to never never land
No reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy
Of innocence again
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

Sailing
Takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
Soon I will be free”

Christopher Cross, 1979

For the better part of the month of July 2023, we engaged in the work of providing summer learning experiences for many students who continue to struggle in the aftermath of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of my girls worked the program with me, one as the school clinic aide, in a break from the demands of a very busy ER in Fairfax, and the other, providing theater classes to our summer students as a volunteer, for the third summer in a row. The students LOVE the theater classes, while they are also learning math and reading strategies.

This year, we hosted students from five different elementary schools in one building over a three week period. The work was exhilarating, challenging, and exhausting. A heat wave hit over the last three days of the program, preventing any type of outdoor activities and yet the summer staff diligently worked through this, and developed alternative experiences inside the cool of the school building.

We waved a final goodbye to our summer students with smiles, waves and bubbles in the bus circle.

The heat wave of 2023, up and down the East Coast, broke just in time for a few days in the Outer Banks at the end of July. Like a gift from heaven above, the sunrises and sunsets were vibrant, the mornings cool and refreshing, as we stood at the water’s edge with our toes in the sand, and the winds on our final day….. perfect to try parasailing for the first time.

I was reminded more than once during the July 2023 parasailing experience, of a lifetime long ago and sailing with my father on the Charles River in Boston as a young child. A young artist named Christopher Cross wrote and released a song during the very same year I first stepped onto a little Sunfish, under the careful guidance & direction of Dad, as we ventured out from the dock.

I always remember the exact moment the wind caught the little sail, on that first trip with Dad, whenever I hear this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PnXcP8ZI7M

In the relentless schedule and demands of life, it is an incredible blessing to have a few days to retreat, rest, re-focus, make new memories, and enjoy some precious time with my girls before another school year gets underway in a few weeks.

“Just a dream and the wind to carry me, and soon I will be free.”