...the crowning glory of seasons...
Summer is that time of year when the entire botanical landscape wears a crown of both beauty and productivity, and the evidence of animal life can be heard as a layered symphony throughout the day.
It’s not just the obvious beauty of summer that captivates me - I love the “lolly-gagging” of summer…
I love not setting the alarm, and allowing the song birds to draw me out of sleep, which is a luxury that I try to indulge in more mornings than not. I love making my way down to the kitchen to make tea, and seeing my children still in bed, reading with windows wide open. I love watching my kids and their friends playing cards on a blanket at the local beach - all wind blown and sun kissed. I love catching my oldest child - my son laying on the grass, gazing up at the huge Maple trees in our yard … just “being”.
One of the most amazing things about summer to me is that there does come a time…
When the plants begin to drop their crowns, the birds lessen, and the morning air becomes quiet, with the crickets and grasshoppers becoming the loudest song of the day … the air suddenly becomes crisp, and there is a quiet shift. It is at about this time, that our whole household begins to tire of the free-flowing nature of summer. It seems unthinkable – to want to shift from care-free, willy-nilly summer toward the seasons that come next…but we do.
Everyone starts to actually crave routine. The school-aged kids start to psyche themselves up once again for the challenges and work of the fast approaching school year! I start to think of making spicy soups and lasagna laden with rosemary once again. Suddenly the idea of wool and the smell of a wood fire in your home creeps into your mind – and it’s exciting!
Isn’t it weird, how just 2 months earlier everyone was so drained and stretched to their limits of time lines, essays, reading lists, calculations and formulae, only to recover and willingly stand up at the starting line again to push themselves and stretch to find new limits - to further find themselves through hard work, camaraderie and academic exploration?
I guess we really are not meant to live a life of just leisure. How could we grow, improve and discover new shade of ourselves without work, challenge and toil?
I love the seasons, the shifts, the tides and natural fluctuations of life!