I've mostly spent this week focusing on Paul . . . i.e., trying to cram an entire summer's worth of getting-ready-to-leave-for-college into the space of two weeks. But I've also starting working on Frost Place plans for next summer, and that has been both exciting and elegiac, given that my dear Teresa Carson has retired from her position as associate director. There will be big changes in 2017, yet I have confidence that our program will keep climbing and striving.

I have to say that it feels good to write those words "I have confidence." We had such an extraordinary session this past summer, and I know that some of that success was due to radical changes I made in scheduling our visiting faculty. It's always tricky to take over a program from another person; and when that person is a charismatic, as Baron is, the trickiness is intensified. So it's taken me a few years to figure out how to create my own version of the conference he began, how to adjust it to my own personality and to the ever-changing needs of our participants and the world in which they teach.

So as this difficult summer draws to a close, I look back and wonder why I spent so much of it in tears. Both of my boys are thriving. My husband is content in his new job. My beautiful old dog died graciously and gracefully. Two really nice young people are thinking about buying my much-loved house. My esteemed colleague Teresa is happily retiring into the next stage of her life. I wrote some poems that aren't terrible. You are my friends. I play in a band. My cat bosses me around. The dahlias are in bloom.