Open your heart to Summer
“There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.” -Celia Thaxter
O Yeah for the signs of Summer!!! Anticipation for school to be out. Birds singing. A certain smell in the air of clean-ness and fresh-ness, crisp-ness, where you want to hang your clothes outside, and forget the dryer. Planning for the beach and a family trip. Preparing for the air-conditioning bills. Doors and windows wide open. This summer-anticipation is in the eyes of almost everyone you meet. My dog even. He can lay on the front door step while I leave the front door open and feel like he is inside and outside both at the same time. Children counting down the days. A remembrance that homework still has to be done, if just for bit longer. Exercise increases, we have to get in to less clothes. Guilt-free slushies and sno-cones. It is the time every year that we long for.
I don’t know why I feel this way about summer, I just do. I think it’s because it means rest. Play. Fun. Trips to the beach. Time with my children that won’t last forever. Precious time. Rest from the cold. I probably will never get out of my bones that I grew up in Minnesota, so summer is always welcome in my mind. Summer. It’s my middle name.
What does summer mean to you. Think of it as a chunk of time. Allow yourself some rest this summer. Plan out what you will do. Maybe you have a lot of work ahead of you, and summer just means more work, if so, then reward yourself at the end of the summer with something awesome. But if summer is your off time, your play time, your kid time, then relish in that. These days are not here long. Love and laugh in summer. Play in it. Journal in it. Plan now what you will do. Paint this summer. Outside. Ride your bike. Walk to the grocery store. Take pictures. Play baseball and tennis with your kids. Turn off the television. Sleep outside under the stars. Welcome summer today. Open your heart to it.
Filed under Live the Art of Life | Comment (0)A day in your Life
“All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.” -M. C. Richards
I was at the park yesterday running with my dog. We stopped at the lakeside so he could jump in the water to cool off and get a drink. A man in a kayak was paddling up to the shore and a kid about 22 or so was helping him get out of the kayak. The kid asked the man if he had had a good ride, if he had paddled up west and looked at the hillside. I think the kid was working for a kayak rental company or something. Then it hit me. The thought of a day. I don’t know why it decided to hit me then, but it did. I understood. A day is a day is a day. This man was out kayaking for “his day”. He didn’t know what tomorrow would be, but he was enjoying the 80-degree-April-sunshine-not-a-cloud-in-the-sky-perfect day. I wondered about the kid. I wondered if he was enjoying his day, or was he rather just counting down the hours til he was off work, and could go hang out with his buddies. How many times have I been there. Passing through the day and not realizing what I was passing up. I thought about my “day”. I was “running with my dog” that day. I was “outside” that day. I was “in the moment” that day. I don’t know how I got it “that day”, but I did.
Today is a gift. It will never return again. Use it for something worthwhile in your life. Don’t try to do everything today because everything can’t be done in “a day”. But one thing can. Do one thing well and great and magnificent. Maybe it’s just a great working day. Or maybe it’s a picnic day. Maybe it’s a check out the new organic farm stand day, or maybe a make a homemade blueberry pie day. But whatever it is, be happy about the “day”. And what you choose to use your time doing during it. Tomorrow is another day, to be used for something else. Plan accordingly. One day for work, one day for enjoyment. One day for art or exercise or adventure. Be grateful for another day. Be grateful for the moments you have in it.
Filed under Live the Art of Life | Comment (0)Wait for the Wildflowers
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned within me that there lay an invincible summer.” -Albert Camus
Wildflowers come every spring. They arrive after winter without failure. Some years there are not as many because of lack of rain or sun or drop in temperature. But they always come, blossoming up the roadsides and hills. We go out and take pictures in the wildflowers. Every year people journey to the hill country not only to see the wildflowers but walk in them, lie in them, sit in them and let the wildflowers totally encompass them. Wildflowers are a sign for us that winter is over and we can begin to feel the sunshine and warmth of summer again.
What is the winter season in your life? Maybe you are sick, or without a job, or going through a divorce, or maybe you finally realized after 15 years, that you haven’t been living and experiencing life the way you should. You have been following someone else’s dream instead of your own. Whatever your reason, remember that winter is just a season. And this is true… In winter, we learn our strength. If there was no hardship in life, we would stay weak and stupid. Winter either breaks us or makes us. It is our choice. It weeds out the weaklings. Stay grounded and strong during winter. Read and rest and take care of yourself. Work hard and pray. Think and do accordingly. Then wait for the Wildflowers. They always bloom. They will bloom in your life. Wait for the wildflowers.
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