March to the beat of your own summer

No matter how deep runs our commitment to live fully present to each day, we cannot help but anticipate the pleasures of summer.

And often what we live for is our deeply-felt notions of summer, rather than any real, or objective (if such a thing existed) definition of it.

But if we’re not careful, or even more so mindful, we can miss it all together! And not just by the passage of time, but by thoughtless omission of the very things that define it for us, simple as they can be.

But just how do we capture our notions of summer, or rather, how do we allow them to captivate us?

This is where the process can be as fun as the outcome. Put away the spreadsheets and slide rules, this is an exercise of the heart. And what part of us that has a longer memory than the heart? (if you said hippocampus you’ve already been distracted by your brain – come back!)

Here are a few ways to reconnect with your essence of summer:

Jot down a few favourite summer memories. Take away any restrictive rules. Could be last year, could be 10 years ago, could be a long time ago. Where were you? what were you doing? who were you with? soaking up the smell after summer rain fall,  walking bare feet in the grass, heading off for crazy cousin time, enjoying patio coffee with your love, lying on your back watching clouds,  the annual family fishing trip,  road trip snacks in the back of your parents’ station wagon, swimming with friends until your fingers are pruney , a tall stack of summer books with the rest of the summer to consume them?

Another angle? Rhyme off your associations of summer? Let your imagination run free! Colours, emotions, sensations, and sounds of summer. Light, slow, blue skies, warmth, red sunsets, humid air, fresh, lazy, new love, close, old friends, noisy storms, carefree, easy?

How about your summer aspirations? The kind of summer that you dream about? The summer dream that has always seemed just a little out of reach but holds some clues to your summer wishes. Long, lingering  beach vacation, exploring distant countries, relinquishing all responsibilities, extended family gatherings, being on a desert island? What do you yearn for?

The point is that it be yours.

And that it could be yours this summer, that there’s still time!

And especially that it doesn’t matter how it lines up with anyone else’s expectations.

Sure there’s conferring, and compromising and planning and budgeting to make vacations come together. But there’s also summer in it’s simplest form. In the form that means the most to you. That probably isn’t too far or inaccessible. That could give you that satisfying feeling that you’ve waited all year for free of worries about what it’s supposed to be.

Everyone deserves a little piece of summer, served up their own way, in a way that only they can know how to fully enjoy.

Grab a slice while you can!

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” ~ John Lubbock