Dear Reader,
After experiencing more than forty-five summers I’ve finally realized there is no mastering this brief season that we associate with a promise of endless joy and sunshine. There is only catching the wave, unable to predict exactly what kind of wave it will be since every summer is different.
For most of my adult summers, especially as a parent, I’ve spent a lot of time fighting with summer, trying to figure out and implement a rhythm that works. Wrestling with summer usually leaves me rather grumpy for the first two months and then panicked for the last three weeks. Inevitably I end up realizing too late that it would have been better to let the days be whatever they were going to be and try to enjoy the highlights along the way.
Currently I’m cresting the wave of this summer and I can see the shore (of the school year) getting closer and closer. The days that felt a little too open and free back in May now seem extremely attractive as I begin to run out of them. Maybe there isn’t a way to stop the panic that comes at the end of summer. But trying to ride the wave, instead of attempting to master it, has given me more peace between the beginning and the end of the season.
Small Tweaks = Large Dividends of Joy
Along with loosening my grip on summer, it’s been helpful to look for small tweaks that have brought large dividends of joy.
Small Vases for a Small Garden
Late last winter I purchased a pack of bud vases, anticipating the joy of cutting flowers from our two small garden beds. The little vases are perfect for our small harvest of zinnias and dahlias. Instead of filling a single jar, I can fill 4-5 bud vases and it feels like we have a multitude of flowers.
Projecting Movies and TV Shows
When I bought a projector at the end of the school year for my theater class I didn’t know it would transform our family time in the evenings. Thanks to the projector, we’ve spent the summer watching movies on our living room wall instead of the TV. We’ve watched classics like Karate Kid and Dances with Wolves and newer movies like The Ballad of Wallis Island. Everything is more fun to watch on the “big screen”.
Starting a New Sketchbook:
I came into summer having misplaced my daily habit of making art. I tried taking an online class or two but all of the projects required too much planning and thinking to get started. One day a sketchbook arrived in the mail. Something I’d ordered for myself but forgotten about. I’d originally chosen it for the toned tan paper and the fact that it was square but I was skeptical as I flipped through the pages that were thinner than I was used to. I left it on my art cart for a couple of weeks.
Hungry to get my habit of art-making back, I eventually tried it out. Immediately, I loved how the colors popped off the page. For about two weeks now I’ve been trying to fill up a few pages a day. It wasn’t anything big that finally invited me back into art, just the small shift of changing the color of the paper.
Do you usually struggle with summer? What small tweaks have brought multitudes of joy to your summer?
One Last Thing
Our family gets a lot of joy out of the antics of our daughter’s cats. Chirp learned a new trick this month: hanging out on the thin ledge of her bedroom door in the middle of the night. I call it his “caterpillar” pose. When he’s not walking on doors, he’s pretty good at snuggling with his brother, Finn.
Blessings from the Guest Nest,
Aimee
P.S.—My thoughts continue to be with the families in Texas who lost their loves ones this month. I don’t have any words to offer, just prayers for God to keep them moment by moment.
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