Grabbing A Bite of Summer

As I flip the calendar from July to August, it seems like just moments ago I was doing that from June to July. Summer is coming to an end, but it’s not over yet. School will start, kids will abandon bare feet for shoes, and stores have already stocked for autumn. But it’s still summer, and I plan to squeeze out every bit of the season.

I don’t know if anything can compare to the summers I had as a child, a preteen, and teen. Running barefoot through the yard, gleeful to be free of school. Staying out late enough to watch fireflies glow in the night. Running through the sprinkler to cool down from the summer heat. Biking around the neighborhood with friends until the street lights came on. I grew up in Michigan in a town surrounded by lakes, so summer time meant spending as much time as possible in the lake. My mom was a nature lover, so she would take my siblings and me to a nearby lake for breakfast, when the air was exceptionally fresh and we were some of the few there. But we might also be at a lake for a lunch picnic, or after my dad came home, for a dinner picnic, all at different lakes. But the best fun was to be had jumping the waves at Lake Michigan.

The Big Lake held a special opportunity when I was a teen, as I’d troll the shore with girlfriends, keeping an eye out for trollers of the opposite sex. We’d never do anything but pass by quietly, then giggle afterwards, but it was exciting with the waves lapping at our feet and sand squishing between our toes. And oh the sunburns later in the day, but that never kept us away or prompted us to apply sunscreen, in those days.

I passed on the tradition of breakfast at the lake to my children when they were young. Different lake in a different state, but still very fun. Now days, my children are doing their own version of summer with their families, very active and very summery. Summer at the Big Lake remains a family favorite.

My husband and I have our own traditions now. We sit outside and talk, waiting for the moon to appear and the fireflies to start dancing. We take evening walks, hoping to see a sky-full of stars. And we make the summer sojourn to Lake Michigan as a couple. It’s one of our favorite spots and always will be. We plant our beach blanket and beach umbrella on the sand and overlook the Big Lake’s expansive vista. It fills me up like nothing else, and I take in the breeze off the lake as though I’m greeting an old friend. For a bit, we’ll watch other lake-lovers, some adults, some little kids, some teens trolling the edge of the beach where waves lap along. But we never miss an opportunity to get into the lake itself and savor the feel of the water against our skin, waves jostling us around. I stand there, neck deep in the lake, peering out toward where the lake touches the sky at the horizon, marveling at the sight and grateful for its presence in my life. It feels timeless to me.

Summer changes, like everything else, but in the Midwest where I grew up and where I reside, it is always special, and worth squeezing out the last moments of it. Fall is spectacular, winter is robust, spring is awesome, but summer has its own wonder.

I’ve visited many states in the U. S., but I’ve never lived anywhere but the Midwest, so I’m curious, what is summer like where you live?