A soft, warm wind pulses through the laundry on our clothesline. Beach towels flap slow in the breeze. Summer fading.

Little boys with suds in their hair squeal down a long, yellow slide in the yard. Sun beats down. Grandma Anne worried about her lawn when my cousins and I would slip-n-slide. I try not to worry. It’s only grass. Let the boys play. The slip-n-slide I’ll drag off the lawn when the sun slides behind the house tonight as dragonflies swirl.

I cut up peaches warm from the tree. Smile as I taste the fruit’s golden flesh. Grandpa Jack would be proud. He loved that his little red-haired granddaughter loved Carolina cling peaches. The kind he raised for the cannery.

Our whole family gathered in my grandparent’s orchard come August to bring in the harvest. Grandpa Jack’s birthday in August. He’d take everyone out to dinner. Hungry from a hard day’s work in the orchard, the meal always tasted extra good. Grandma Anne had her one margarita. “Pops” as we called Grandpa Jack, had his highball. Us kids drank Shirley Temples with cherries in our soda. After the margarita, Grandma Anne would giggle. She wasn’t a giggler so I loved her softness after dinner.

It’s adding peaches and a clothesline to my life that has brought back memories of my grandparents. They’ve been gone two decades. Summer season on their farm so fresh in my mind. So special and sweet. Perhaps it’s the way August always plays itself out–sweaty, steady, and sure– that takes me back to those years.

The boys complain it’s hot so I buy the half price slip-n-slide. Summer on clearance.

Baby soap exaggerates the slip. No need to bathe the boys tonight. They run across the grass, dive onto the slide, scream in delight. Delight fills me, too. For a moment I am eight years old in my bathing suit on my grandparents’ lawn with my cousins.

Peaches on the trees surrounding their yard, Grandma Anne’s chicken house, the garden, and clothesline, and my grandparents– a good life– wholesome. Grandma Anne never missed church. Never forgot God. Lawrence Welk was her favorite show. The memories inspire me to slow down. To spend time with a clothesline, a slip-n-slide, my kids, and Carolina peaches come sweet August.

The heartbeat of God in this life.