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.

test Filed under Live the Art of Life | Comment (0)