Trinity season

On the Church calendar, Trinity season is that long stretch of nothing after Easter/Ascension/Pentecost and before Advent/Christmas/Epiphany seasons. It covers the dog days of summer, which we’re just coming into. That’s a classical reference — it has something to do with Sirius, the dog star, but I always thought it was because you spend your days dragging around, panting like a dog.

Summer is my least favorite of all the seasons, even though I love the home-grown tomatoes, because I dislike being hot and sticky in spite of air conditioning. Someone should invent a set of personal gills for use in the South in summer — maybe the heat would be bearable if I could just get a lungful of oxygen.

I love the spring and we took off nearly the whole two months from Easter to Trinity, so we could be outside doing yardwork, gardening, and just enjoying life. But Trinity arrived, reminding me that we have all kinds of work to do as we wait for Christ’s return. The last Sunday before Advent is Christ the King, when we remember that he really will come again, and we are to be busy about his work until then.

So we went back to school on the Monday after Trinity. No summer break for us this year, which works out well since my mom and stepdad won’t be able to come out here or take the kids home with them for visits this summer as they usually do. We can have a twelve week term and then take off the month of September (my other favorite time to be out of school), when my folks will be free to visit.

I don’t know if we’ll do this again in future years, but for this year, so far it’s working out well.